Water UK calls on regulators and government to back its National Storm Overflow Plan

Water UK has published details of the English water industry’s updated strategy to cut storm overflow spills between 2025 and 2050 – and called on Ofwat to approve the bill investment to fund it, and of the government to deliver ten policy commitments to speed up improvements.

The National Storm Overflows Plan consists of a document providing a national overview of company proposals, and an interactive map detailing the action planned for each individual overflow. The map enables filtering by water company, catchment, river basin and type of water body, and also provides a high-level view of planned investment, forecast impact, and expected solution.

Phase one runs between 2025 and 2030, and will triple the current level of investment to £10.2bn, which Water UK said would fund 9,000 storm overflow improvements, eliminating 150,000 spills per year – including tackling nearly two thirds of spills near bathing sites, and nearly half of spills near conservation areas.

By 2050, the plan would address 325,000 spills per year, and prevent more than 4m discharges. All 14,187 overflows in England will meet or exceed every government target.

Around three quarters of interventions are traditional engineered solutions, and around one quarter nature-based.

Water UK’s chief executive, David Henderson, said: “This the first plan in the world to set out such a detailed and expansive programme for upgrading overflows right across the country…The regulator Ofwat must now back these transformative plans. We also call on the government to deliver the ten commitments it has previously made, each of which is critical for delivering further reductions in overflows.”

The ten policies have been previously announced but are yet to be delivered, and Water UK said would pose no additional cost to taxpayers: 

• Review of the Bathing Water Regulations 2013.

• End the automatic right of housing developers to connect to overloaded sewers.

• Assess giving water companies the right to repair defective drains on private property.

• Ban the manufacture and sale of plastic wet wipes.

• Use fines to improve the environment.

• Assess the role of highway drainage as a source of environmental harm.

• Assess giving water companies the right to improve drainage systems on private property to reduce impermeable areas connected to the combined sewer network.

• Assess giving water companies the right to discharge clean rainwater back into water courses.

• Consult on making water companies statutory consultees on planning applications.

• End operator self-monitoring.

Responding, the chief executive of The Rivers Trust, Mark Lloyd, called the plan “a very significant proposal to address a large proportion of sewage overflows which have blighted far too many of our rivers for far too long” and “a welcome positive step forwards towards healthier rivers for wildlife and people”.

He added: “It remains to be seen whether Ofwat will back this plan and government will deliver on their commitments to realise the full impact of the investment…Water UK are right to highlight many other policies which have been jammed in government machinery for years.

“We would also like to see more widespread use of nature-based, collaborative solutions to these problems, such as wetlands and rain gardens. This would make better use of these billions of pounds because they also restore wildlife habitats and help build our resilience to drought and floods.”