diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 837b2333b..455683a0d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -22,3 +22,6 @@ awscli==1.14.2
 awscli-cwlogs>=1.4,<1.5
 
 git+https://github.com/alphagov/notifications-utils.git@23.3.1#egg=notifications-utils==23.3.1
+
+# required by utils
+git+https://github.com/leohemsted/smartypants.py.git@regex-speedup#egg=smartypants==2.1.0