Netmore Wins £200m Contract to Wire UK's Water Grid

Severn Trent partners with Netmore Group to deploy one million AMI smart meters across England and Wales by 2030

31 Mar 2026

Severn Trent, one of Britain's largest water utilities, has awarded a £200 million contract to Netmore Group to build and manage an advanced metering infrastructure network spanning one million smart water meters across more than 20 counties in England and Wales. The agreement, confirmed in September 2025, represents one of the most expansive AMI deployments the European water sector has undertaken.

The network will operate on a dual wireless architecture combining LoRaWAN and Narrowband-IoT technology, designed to transmit daily consumption data directly into Severn Trent's management systems. That continuous data feed is intended to accelerate leak detection, sharpen resource planning, and give customers clearer visibility into their water use. Itron and Diehl will supply LoRaWAN-compatible meters; Vodafone IoT will provide NB-IoT connectivity across the network.

Netmore already operates what company statements describe as the U.K.'s largest LoRaWAN network, covering 43 counties and reaching more than 51 million people. Prior deployments with other major British water companies suggest this is a tested model being scaled rather than a technology still finding its footing in the field.

Severn Trent has set measurable targets tied directly to regulatory obligations. The utility aims to cut household water leakage by 16 percent and household consumption by 7 percent by 2030, alongside a 3.5 percent reduction in business water use over the same period. Those goals align with Ofwat's AMP8 investment framework, which is pressing water companies across the country to modernise their networks during the current five-year regulatory cycle.

The deal also reflects a structural shift gaining momentum across the European water sector. Utilities are increasingly turning to specialist IoT network operators rather than conventional vertically integrated meter suppliers, separating connectivity infrastructure from hardware provision to combine best-in-class components and reduce dependence on any single vendor. Whether that model translates cleanly to utilities operating under different regulatory regimes and network conditions across the continent remains to be tested.