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Automation in the UK

Three funded programmes are creating automation work in the UK

Made Smarter for SME manufacturers, AMP8 for the water industry and a record battery storage build-out all need controls engineering and people who can run it. Here is what is driving demand and what Wartens offers.

In short

UK automation demand is being driven by Made Smarter support for SME manufacturers, Ofwat's AMP8 water investment period and the Great Britain battery storage build-out, according to sources including Causeway, Made Smarter and Modo Energy. Wartens responds with water controls, Made Smarter-ready PLC and SCADA projects, battery storage SCADA, digital twins and training from its Milton Keynes headquarters.

The UK picture

UK automation in numbers

£104bn

of water-company spending approved by Ofwat for April 2025 to March 2030 (AMP8), 77% more than the previous cycle

Causeway

£20,000

maximum Made Smarter grant towards new digital equipment or software for SME manufacturers

Made Smarter

11.8 GWh

of battery storage in Great Britain after Q1 2026 (7.2 GW), with a 30 GW pipeline

Modo Energy

11th

largest manufacturing nation in the world, with $279bn of output

Make UK, UK Manufacturing: The Facts 2025

148,000

workers needed in 25 priority advanced-manufacturing occupations, 2025–2035

Skills England, June 2026

−35%

fall in UK industrial robot installations in 2024, to around 2,500 units

International Federation of Robotics, Sept 2025

Figures are taken from the published sources linked above and reflect the date shown for each.

What is driving demand

Where UK automation work is coming from

  1. 01

    Funded SME digitalisation

    Made Smarter helps small and mid-sized manufacturers adopt automation, robotics, data systems and AI, with grants of up to £20,000. The programme is expanding across England and to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from 2026-27.

    Made Smarter; PES Media

  2. 02

    Record water investment

    Ofwat approved £104 billion of water-company spending for AMP8, 77% more than the previous cycle. Water companies now expect digital-ready supply chains, and skills are the biggest delivery challenge.

    Causeway

  3. 03

    Battery storage build-out

    Great Britain's battery fleet reached 7.2 GW and 11.8 GWh after Q1 2026, with a 30 GW pipeline and about 20 to 22.8 GW forecast by the end of 2029.

    Modo Energy

What we offer

What we offer in the United Kingdom

The services we lead with locally, what you get and who they suit best.

Standards and platforms

UK machinery is designed to BS EN 60204-1 for the electrical equipment of machines and supplied under UKCA product-safety marking. Water-sector work follows each company's own engineering standards, which we work to on every project.

Local presence

Group headquarters at Unit 8, Lyon Road, Milton Keynes, MK1 1EX, with engineering delivered from our India centre.

Questions we're asked

Wartens scopes PLC and SCADA engineering, robot cells and data capture sized for SME budgets and grant applications, so the technical plan is ready for your Made Smarter conversation. Grant eligibility and decisions are made by Made Smarter and your regional team, not by Wartens.

UK machinery is designed to BS EN 60204-1 for the electrical equipment of machines and supplied under UKCA product-safety marking. Water-sector work follows each water company's own engineering standards, and PLC software is written to IEC 61131-3. Quality management across the group is certified to ISO 9001:2015.

Talk to our Milton Keynes team

Send us your drawings, code or site details. We'll come back with a written scope, schedule and price.

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