diff --git a/.github/workflows/_test.yml b/.github/workflows/_test.yml
index 3e5879cb9..f652d4145 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_test.yml
@@ -50,9 +50,6 @@ jobs:
           python-version: ${{ inputs.python-version }}
           pip-install: ".[dev]"
 
-      - name: Update setuptools
-        run: pip install --upgrade setuptools
-
       - name: Run tests
         run: tox -e tests
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6cc7cca65..53af0c339 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ dev = [
     "sphinx-design",
     "tox-direct",
     "types-mock",
+    "setuptools>=70.1", # https://github.com/DiamondLightSource/aioca/issues/71
     "aioca",
     "p4p",
     "httpx",