When we think of the UK’s great engineering feats, it’s easy to focus on concrete, steel, and the scale of what’s been built. But behind every major project are the people who make it possible and at Tideway, the £4.6 billion “Super Sewer” transforming London’s River Thames, people were the real foundation.
In the latest episode of Build & Thrive, host Jennie Armstrong sits down with Andy Mitchell, CEO of Tideway, and Steve Hails, Director of Business Services and Health, Safety & Wellbeing, to discuss what made the project not just an engineering success, but a cultural one. Together, they explore how the team embedded care, collaboration, and a prevention-first approach into every decision – setting new standards for the construction industry.
A Project with Purpose
As Andy Mitchell explains, Tideway began with an environmental challenge: “Our job was to build a system that would intercept the vast majority of untreated sewage that goes into the Thames every year.”
But from the very beginning, the team decided this wasn’t just a technical project – it was a chance to reconnect London with its river, to create something that improved both the environment and the lives of those who worked on it.
“We talked about repairing a lost love affair between the people and the river,” Andy recalls. “We wanted to do something more than just build – we wanted to do something brilliant.”
That mindset – one of creativity, care, and ambition – shaped every element of the project. Tideway became a living example of what can happen when a client sees culture as something to design, not something that develops by chance.
A Clean Sheet and a Clear Vision
With a clean slate and a major mandate, the Tideway leadership team had a rare opportunity: to build an entirely new culture from scratch.
Andy Mitchell describes those early discussions: “We asked ourselves, why would we just do something that’s ‘good enough’? Why not aim to do it the best we can?”
That question set the tone for what followed. The team agreed that health, safety, and wellbeing would sit on equal footing from day one – not as separate priorities, but as one shared principle: people first.
Steve Hails remembers how groundbreaking that commitment was. “It was a corporate objective from the start – parity between health and safety,” he explains. “I still don’t think it’s fully there across the industry, but at Tideway we had the freedom to push those boundaries.”
This approach was strengthened by strong leadership and clear expectations. The Tideway board backed health and wellbeing as a fundamental part of the project’s success – not a nice-to-have.
Building Trust Across the Supply Chain
Major projects often struggle with fragmentation – clients, contractors, and suppliers all operating under separate priorities. Tideway flipped that dynamic on its head.
Jennie Armstrong notes that from her years working on the project, “It always felt different – there was this genuine sense of one team.”
That wasn’t an accident. “You’ve got to be bold,” says Andy Mitchell, “and you’ve got to recognise that as the client, you have the greatest position of influence.”
Rather than enforcing compliance from above, Tideway built its culture on respect, empathy, and trust. “You have to remember that people and companies are there to make a living,” Andy explains. “You’re going to have commercial differences, but that doesn’t make someone bad. It’s about relationships.”
That mindset fostered collaboration even during challenging times. “It’s easy to work well together when everything’s going swimmingly,” he says, “but the proof is how you behave when it’s not.”
Raising the Bar – Then Letting Others Push It Higher
When Steve Hails reflects on what made the culture work, one thing stands out: the balance between leadership and empowerment.
“In the early days, the supply chain was used to being told what to do,” he explains. “We wanted them to be more creative. We wanted them to challenge us.”
That shift took time, but once trust was established, innovation flourished. “We raised the bar,” Steve says, “but then we encouraged – more than encouraged – our supply chain to challenge that bar and raise it themselves. And when they did, we listened.”
That listening culture became one of Tideway’s greatest assets. Contractors began taking ownership of health and wellbeing initiatives, leading everything from mental health programmes to occupational hygiene innovations. “They had our support,” Steve says. “They knew they could challenge us, and we would respond.”
Health and Wellbeing by Design
For Tideway, health wasn’t just a compliance measure – it was an engineered outcome.
Steve Hails describes how the project embedded health into every contract. “We required occupational hygienists to be directly employed on the programme,” he explains. “They became part of the team, sharing knowledge every day and upskilling others across every shift and discipline.”
This focus on expertise and prevention changed how people saw health risks. “It wasn’t just about fresh fruit on a Friday,” Steve adds. “It was about dust, vibration, noise, fatigue – the things that actually harm people.”
The result was a workforce that understood health as part of their everyday role, not a separate agenda. “It all came down to one message,” Steve says. “Tideway cares.”
Andy Mitchell agrees. “If you care about someone’s safety, then you care about their wellbeing – physical and mental. It’s not logical to separate the two. You either care about people, or you don’t.”
The Power of Leadership That Means It
That phrase – you either care or you don’t – became a defining theme of the episode.
Andy Mitchell believes that leadership isn’t about policies; it’s about consistency. “If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. And if you say it, you’ve got to mean it.”
This attitude filtered through the entire organisation. From free-issue PPE to platinum-standard welfare facilities, Tideway proved that caring isn’t a cost – it’s an investment.
“When we asked contractors to raise their standards, we paid for it,” Andy explains. “If that’s what we wanted, we had to put our money where our mouth is.”
That integrity built trust and delivered results. By creating an environment where people felt safe, supported, and valued, Tideway saw stronger retention, higher productivity, and a better quality of work.
Mental Health, Fatigue, and the Human Element
Mental health support was another key area where Tideway led by example.
Steve Hails played a central role in establishing Mates in Mind, a construction-specific charity promoting mental health awareness. “We quickly realised there was nothing in this space that was specific to our industry,” he says. “So we helped create it.”
Tideway invested heavily in mental health first aid training, but also recognised that support must be proactive, not just reactive. The team ran stress management surveys and open forums to identify risk factors before they became crises.
“We talked about mental health regularly,” says Jennie Armstrong. “Not just during awareness weeks, but as part of everyday conversations.”
The impact was measurable. “When we surveyed our teams,” Steve recalls, “78% said they’d feel comfortable talking to their line manager about mental health. That simply wouldn’t have happened a decade ago.”
Even near the project’s end – when stress levels rose as teams demobilised – the focus on communication and psychological safety helped maintain openness and trust.
The Legacy of Care
As Tideway nears completion, both Andy and Steve are keen to ensure the lessons aren’t lost.
“I take comfort in knowing that 25,000 people have worked on Tideway,” Andy says. “Each of them will take something away – their own impression of how things can be.”
For him, the legacy isn’t about a checklist of initiatives, but a mindset. “We’ve proven that purpose and profit don’t have to compete,” he explains. “You can build great things, care for people, and be commercially successful.”
Steve Hails echoes that sentiment. “The industry needs to be more cohesive. We all need to agree on what good looks like, and commit to it. Otherwise, we’ll keep reinventing the wheel on every project.”
Their hope is that other leaders will see culture as something to design intentionally, not to leave to chance. “As the client, you set the tone,” Andy says. “If you mean it, people feel it. And that changes everything.”
Final Takeaway: Culture Is the Real Infrastructure
Reflecting on Tideway’s success, Jennie Armstrong summarises it best: “What Tideway achieved goes beyond engineering. It showed that caring for people – really caring – delivers better results for everyone.”
The project’s message is clear: health, safety, and wellbeing aren’t competing priorities; they’re the same thing seen through different lenses.
By designing care into contracts, embedding specialists in the field, and leading with authenticity, Tideway demonstrated that when you invest in people, you build something far stronger than concrete – you build trust, pride, and purpose.
✅ Key Takeaways:
- Health, safety and wellbeing can achieve true parity – when leadership makes it a shared goal.
- Caring for people isn’t a cost; it’s an investment that drives better performance.
- Collaboration and trust across client and contractor relationships create real change.
- Occupational hygiene and mental health must be designed into projects, not added later.
- Leadership sets the tone – consistency and integrity build the culture.
- The future of construction lies in designing for people as much as for projects.
🎙 Watch or listen to the full podcast with Andy Mitchell and Steve Hails, hosted by Jennie Armstrong, on Build & Thrive – available now on YouTube, Spotify, Buzzsprout and all major platforms.
🎧 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2431164
📺 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEoibJLDuFnnT3qSQw37LKPG6xlyvCj7B
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Thank you to GKR Scaffolding for sponsoring the Build & Thrive podcast and supporting our mission to improve health and wellbeing across the construction industry.
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Learn more about the people and organisations mentioned in this episode:
Jennie Armstrong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniearmstrong/
Construction Health & Wellbeing: https://constructionhealth.co.uk/
Kevin Bampton:
- Website: https://www.bohs.org/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-bampton-6b55441a3/ │https://www.linkedin.com/company/bohs/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bohsworld
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/BOHSworld
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BOHSworld
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0pTnkODfIHad5s9dpuPrpw
GKR Scaffolding (sponsor): https://gkrscaffolding.co.uk/
