Lucion shortlisted for NWG GEM Award, recognising 21 years of work with Northumbrian Water 

Managing environmental risk across a major water utility is no small task. Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) operates 338 water service reservoirs, over 25,500 kilometres of water mains, 418 sewage treatment works and 765 sewage pumping stations, much of it in remote, hard-to-access locations across the North-East and East of England. 

For years, asbestos management across infrastructure like this relied on paper records and basic spreadsheets. Locating a specific asset buried in open countryside, cross-referencing which sites had been surveyed, and keeping contractors up to date with the latest risk information was time-consuming and, at times, a genuine operational headache, not just for NWG, but for the wider sector. 

Building a system that grows with the network 

Since 2005, our work with NWG has evolved from a standard asbestos survey contract into something closer to a live risk-management infrastructure. Today, NexGen, our proprietary risk management software provided to all of clients for with our services, holds over 10,200 unique asbestos records for NWG alone, spanning both operational and domestic sites, with everything linked but clearly separated to reflect how NWG’s teams actually work. 

A few developments have made a genuine difference to how field teams operate day to day: 

• GPS-tagged site photography, so remote or hard-to-find assets get an exact location the moment a surveyor takes a photo, removing the guesswork from navigating a spreadsheet reference to a reservoir in the middle of nowhere. 
• Asbestos QR code labelling at sites, giving contractors instant access to live, up-to-date records on site rather than relying on paperwork that could be out of date. 
• Interactive risk mapping across the full asset portfolio, giving NWG’s environmental teams visibility they simply didn’t have before. 
• Most recently, bespoke dashboards, launched in late 2025, giving NWG full transparency into delivery performance. 

One of the less visible but more important parts of this project has been continuity. Rather than migrating data between systems every few years (a process that could loses historical context or introduce errors) NWG’s asbestos records have lived in the same evolving system for two decades.   

A platform that’s growing with our service offering 

In November, we launched a redesigned NexGen dashboard offering real-time risk tracking, enhanced data visualisation, and AI-powered summaries that surface the information that matters most, without needing to dig through spreadsheets or wait for a report.  

Since this significant upgrade, we’ve been steadily broadening what NexGen can do beyond asbestos. The platform now supports a growing range of add-on modules, reflecting the fact that many of our clients manage risk across multiple environmental and compliance areas, not just one. Recent additions include: 

• Legionella testing, monitoring and reporting, giving clients the same real-time visibility for water hygiene compliance that they already have for asbestos. 
• Flood risk, supporting asset owners with dispersed or vulnerable sites, a particularly relevant addition for a water utility managing infrastructure across catchments and floodplains. 
• Radon monitoring, extending NexGen’s reach into radiation protection compliance for buildings and sites where gas ingress is a concern. 

Commenting on what’s next for NexGen, Software Engineering Director Paul Hayball said: 

“Our mission for NexGen is simple. Rather than clients juggling separate systems for every type of risk, NexGen is becoming a single point of access. One login, one dashboard, one place to see what’s outstanding, what’s been done, and what’s coming next.  

With continuous improvements to current features including asbestos QR Codes and a road map of module rollouts such as sealed sources, concrete testing, and land and building survey integration, NexGen makes managing your assets throughout the lifecycle, simple.”   

Want to understand what NexGen is, view a list of features and how NexGen can help your asset management? Download our guide by clicking here. 

Recognition, and what it says about the sector 

This isn’t the first time the partnership has been recognised. Lucion was runner-up for Responsible Procurement at NWG’s 2023 GEM Awards, with a further shortlisting in Carbon Conscious.  

Our commitment to service excellence is reflected in feedback from NWG colleagues, gathered as part of a recent Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey across all Lucion Services clients, which achieved an overall score of 51 – rated “Excellent” with feedback including: 

“Great communication throughout, familiar personnel, site technician (Carl Tyson)’s knowledge was brilliant and provided assurances at short notice which allowed subsequent project work to proceed to plan.” – Joe Miller, NWG 

“Thoroughness & professionalism of attending surveyors.” – Kay Silver, NWG 

 

Lucion at the NWL GEM Awards 

Charlotte Lovewell, Account Manager for Northumbrian Water Group, and Rich Murphy, Sales Director for Lucion Services, will represent Lucion at the GEM Awards ceremony this September, where finalists across all ten categories will be celebrated before winners and runners-up are announced. 

Commenting on the shortlisting, Charlotte said:  

“Being shortlisted for this award is testament to the hard work of our whole team and the strength of our long-standing partnership with NWG. From pioneering GPS technology to full transparency on delivery performance, we’re proud to keep raising the bar on what customer experience means in asbestos management.” 

 

We look forward to attending the NWG GEM awards ceremony and have our fingers crossed for the win.