A NEW £200 million business employing 2,500 people is to be set up in the North West.

The company is being formed by United Utilities plc following the merger of North West Water and Norweb. It will handle services including meter reading and billing, computer services and training for the two utilities.

And the company - to be called Vertex - will also sell services to other companies throughout the UK.

"The market for facilities management is growing and includes customers such as central government, local government other utilities and commercial organisation," explained executive chairman Derek Lewis, former chief of Technology plc. "There is a considerable market opportunity for us. We have a powerful combination of resources and people capable of handling additional external profitable business."

Now the search is on for suitable premises for Vertex when it starts trading in April.

"Putting together the new company is a massive exercise and we are still working on a great deal of detail," said Mr Lewis.

Staff for the new company will be drawn from the departments of North West Water and Norweb.

"As far as jobs are concerned we are not announcing any redundancy measures and hope that where there are overlaps we shall be able to cope through redeployment, retraining, natural wastage or voluntary severance," added Mr Lewis.

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