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Allan Owen

Allan Owen

Partner

020 7405 4600

Contact by email

Allan is an Infrastructure Projects and Construction Partner with a depth of experience advising on high-value, nationally significant infrastructure and PPP transactions across the water, transport, and healthcare sectors.

Allan’s role:

Allan is a specialist in procurement strategy, project structuring, bankable risk allocation, and negotiation of complex project documentation from early-stage development through to delivery.

Allan has extensive experience advising regulated utilities and central government bodies on a wide range of construction, PPP, and regulated infrastructure matters consistently helping clients to achieve effective outcomes.

He is an NEC specialist advising clients across the full NEC contract suite.

Skills and strengths:

Allan’s approachability and commerciality are key to giving his clients detailed and intelligible practice advice.

He is a diligent practitioner with an eye for detail and a wealth of experience devising commercial contracting strategies which drive value for money, balancing the protection of clients’ interests with the need to ensure market acceptability.

Nicky Sumner, Ros Serrelli, Allan Owen, Natasha Barlow, Charlotte Smith, Juli Lau, and Rob Prater are all excellent individuals who provide regular legal advice, covering legal advice on procurement, contracts, and conflicts of interest, among other things. They all work very collaboratively and take the time to ensure the client fully understands the issues and the advice being given.

Legal 500 2027

A true professional who knows his subject matter which instils confidence in others

Allan has been a reassuringly constant feature in our senior commercial meetings and contract negotiations, at which we never cease to be amazed by his encyclopaedic knowledge and good humour that he always brings with him. Allan faultlessly performs his role to the point that we see him as not just providing expert legal support, but also as being a trusted advisor.

Project Director

  • Central Government
  • Corporate Clients
  • Education Providers
  • Emergency Services
  • Energy Sector
  • Health
  • Housing Sector
  • Leisure
  • Local Government
  • Transport Sector
  • Waste Sector
  • Water Sector
  • Commercial
  • Commercial Contracts
  • Construction
  • Construction contracts
  • Infrastructure
  • Procurement
  • Department for Health and Social Care – New Hospitals Programme: Allan has advised the New Hospital Programme extensively on the procurement a delivery partner contract and the creation of a main works framework agreement. Advising on this programme has also necessitated an in-depth understanding of the broad range of alliance models successfully implemented across the industry. This project involves managing a complex stakeholder environment including a centralised programme team, hospital trusts, Government, and industry. Allan has advised on the delivery of an innovative commercial and contracting model structured to drive efficiencies through standardisation and the use of modern methods of construction, secure market appetite, and provide confidence to drive investment.
  • Portsmouth Water Limited: Advising on the development of a new £300m water storage reservoir. Allan provided commercial and procurement advice and lead on the development of commercial strategy, drafting, negotiation, and procurement of all major packages including a principal designer procurement and later main works contract procurements using the UCR 2016 negotiated procedure. All major contracts were procured using the NEC4 suite including the Professional Service Contract and the Engineering and Construction Contract across a range of pricing options. Allan also advised during the negotiation phase of a bulk supply agreement and advised on associated regulatory issues, including the consideration of proposed licence modifications.
  • Rail infrastructure project in the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio: Advising on various aspects of Phase 1 and Phase 2a. Allan provides construction and procurement advice in respect of a variety of packages, having particular involvement in the Phase 2a civil works and ‘Station Common Components’ procurements Advising on this project has broadened Allan’s NEC3 experience, advising on some of the lesser used forms including the Supply Contract and the Term Service Contract. Given the scale of the project and the number of key stakeholders (including the Department for Transport), Allan has been required to create innovative and dynamic solutions to ensure the delivery of the client’s requirements.
  • Liverpool City Region Combined Authority: Advising the passenger transport executive of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority on their hydrogen bus project. Allan is engaged to advise on a range of commercial, procurement, subsidy control, and transport law elements of the project and led on the negotiation of leases between Merseytravel and bus operators in the region.
  • Thames Tideway Tunnel: Advising Bazalgette Tunnel Limited in relation to its post-construction completion tunnel maintenance contract. Advice covered both the contract and commercial strategy and the end-to-end procurement process for the maintenance phase of the project. Allan continues to advise on the related control systems maintenance contract.

King’s Speech: Clean Water Bill to Shake up Water Industry

19 May 2026

The Government’s proposed Clean Water Bill marks a significant step in the ongoing reform of the water sector, introducing wide-ranging changes aimed at strengthening regulation, improving environmental outcomes, and restoring public confidence. Investors will be watching closely to assess the impact of these changes on the attractiveness of the water sector for private investment. Maggie... Read more

Smart Metering in the Water Industry: Deep Dive

18 September 2025

Smart metering is becoming a central part of the UK water industry’s digital transformation, offering opportunities to improve efficiency, customer service and sustainability. As water companies move toward smarter infrastructure, legal, regulatory and procurement challenges are emerging, particularly around data management, privacy and system security. Understanding these issues is key for water companies, regulators and…

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Cunliffe In-Depth: What the Cunliffe Report means and what comes next

15 September 2025

Introduction: A Watershed Moment for the UK Water Sector Steve Gummer and Allan Owen, Partners in Sharpe Pritchard’s Infrastructure Department are the authors of the case summary for the Cunliffe Report’s latest findings. It is easy to get lost in headlines about regulators being abolished and water company profiteering. However, the Independent Water Commission’s final…

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Cunliffe in-depth: What the Cunliffe Report means and what comes next

21 July 2025

It is easy to get lost in headlines about regulators being abolished and water company profiteering. However, the Independent Water Commission’s final report, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe and published on 21 July 2025, sets out the most ambitious overhaul of the UK water sector since privatisation. With 88 formal recommendations, the Cunliffe Report outlines…

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Allan's Publications
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