Ofwat accelerates £1.6bn of investment in supply, storm overflows and nutrient neutrality

Ofwat is consulting until 24 April on plans to accelerate the delivery of 31 investment schemes, across 11 water companies, valued at around £500m over the 2023-2025 period and £1.6bn overall. The schemes will deliver benefits for customers and the environment and work on them must begin before 2025.

Ofwat said the investment will deliver benefit in three areas:

• £1.1bn to improve over 250 storm overflows and reduce the annual average of spills by 10,000 – this includes work to improve water quality at the bathing water site at Ilkley on the River Wharfe and significantly reduce spills into Lake Windermere;

• £400m for water resilience schemes including installation of 462,000 smart meters, and new water resource and water quality projects – it said in total these projects will deliver and protect 159Mld of water supply, helping to increase drought resilience; and

• £160m to help reduce nutrient pollution and support nutrient neutrality at 14 locations – protecting natural ecosystems while facilitating housing and economic development.

The companies involved are: Anglian, Northumbrian, Severn Trent, South West, United Utilities, Yorkshire, Affinity, Bristol, Portsmouth, South Staffs and Southern.

Southern Water explained it had secured funding to run three industrial scale pilots to stop and slow surface and groundwater reaching its sewer system. Much of the investment will be in green solutions including water butts, raingarden planters, swales, tree-pits and new wetland schemes. There will also be network improvements and work to address misconnections. The objective is to drastically cut storm overflow activity.

Ofwat has also identified a further 37 schemes, totalling £376m of investment in the 2023-25 period and £1.5bn overall, that companies can accelerate if they are included in final company environmental plans and address concerns that Ofwat has raised.

In October 2022, Ofwat and Defra invited companies to propose schemes to accelerate investment in water resilience (supply and demand), storm overflows and nutrient neutrality. They received formal submissions from all English water companies, except SES Water.

Ofwat noted that early approval of schemes will help the sector to gear up for a larger investment programme over the coming years and will help deliver benefits for customers and the environment sooner.