Eversheds has retained its principal adviser role with Anglian Water as the utility provider gets set to roll out a £5bn investment programme.

The firm will keep its spot with the water company covering employment, competition, pensions and property work for at least the next three years, though the contract contains the option for Anglian to extend the appointment for a further two years.

The firm did not disclose the value of the contact.

A five year appointment would mean Eversheds' appointment would cover the whole period during which Anglian is set to invest £5bn to address leakages and the resilience of its treatment facilities.

Eversheds will take a lead role advising on that programme.

The Eversheds pitch team was led by disputes partner Amrik Kandola.

It is understood rival firm Linklaters will continue to cover capital markets work for Anglian, but that it did not have to undergo a similar formal procurement process. There are no further secondary advisers used by the water company.

Claire Russell, legal director at Anglian Water identified Eversheds' "willingness to collaborate and complement Anglian's own in-house team" as key to the firm's reappointment.

The re-appointment came into effect on 1 April, the same day as a new five year sole provider agreement between fellow utility provider Severn Trent and Eversheds kicked in.

The areas of work under that arrangement are slightly different from the Anglian Water job. Eversheds' five 'lots' of work for Severn will focus on debt recovery, employment, general quality regulation, property and combined competition/commercial economic regulation.