John is a Chartered Civil Engineer with 40 years experience covering engineering, operational and project management roles in the water and related industries.  He is currently responsible for the planning and delivery of Northumbrian Water’s investment programmes covering the north east of England, Essex and Suffolk with delivery teams located in Sunderland, Chelmsford and Lowestoft. Under John’s leadership Northumbrian Water have embraced a collaborative approach to programme delivery, refreshing their framework agreements in 2015 and establishing integrated delivery teams comprising client and contract partner staff co-located at three regional hubs.  The largest of these situated in Seaham near Sunderland houses 300 people, made up of asset planners, client project managers and technical / support staff, partner design and construction and commercial teams all under one roof. These integrated teams deliver range of projects to provide new or enhanced water and wastewater infrastructure and are currently preparing for the challenges of AMP7.  Innovation will be key to delivering the desired outcomes. John’s paper will cover the Northumbrian Water approach to innovation in relation to capex delivery.