One of the main goals of the water regulator, Ofwat, is to open the water market to competition. Traditionally, when building new properties a developer contacted the local water company which appointed a contractor to install the connections. The opportunity now exists for the developer to appoint a contractor of its own choosing to install the connections: this is known as ‘self-lay’. The WRc project managed an exercise to develop a code of practice for the self-lay process and then ran a series of regional seminars to launch it.

Bluejohn worked with WRc’s in-house team to identify and contact potential visitors in water companies, consulting engineers, contractors, product manufacturers and developers. In one region, bookings were below target and Bluejohn undertook a successful telephone marketing exercise to increase visitor numbers. Bluejohn chaired each of the seminars, set the scene with the opening presentation, managed the question and answer sessions, and then summarised the key findings in the closing comments.

Bluejohn also chaired a one-off conference on the ‘Future of domestic water metering’ for the WRc.