Water Resources East today released a first annual progress report on its Regional Water Resources Plan for Eastern England published in December 2023. The annual report outlines significant advancements made during 2024 and highlights key areas of focus for the future. The report underscores WRE’s commitment to collaborative, integrated water resource management, ensuring a thriving economy and a healthy environment for the region. To support the report’s key findings, WRE is also launching a new interactive data dashboard that presents water company historic performance and future plans against a range of water consumption, leakage and other demand-side metrics.
Read the full WRE Progress Report here:
Overall, good progress has been made over the past 12 months in taking forward the Regional Water Resources Plan for Eastern England. Water resources planning for agriculture is now underway in earnest supported by funding from the Environment Agency. Detailed water resources management plans covering almost the entire eastern region through to 2050 have now been approved by the Secretary of State, and Price Review 2024 concluded positively for the key public water supply components of WRE’s plan. Whilst leakage targets are proving a challenge, household demand for water has fallen to below pre-COVID levels. Abstraction reforms are being implemented to protect the environment and the pace of change is set to accelerate.
Agriculture:
- Significant studies are now underway to support agricultural water resource planning, thanks to new funding from the Environment Agency (EA). This has facilitated pilot Supply-Demand Balance Assessments in the Cam & Ely Ouse catchment and the initiation of 12 Local Resource Option scoping studies across the eastern region, helping groups of farm businesses to explore innovative water resource options and build long-term plans for the future.
- WRE secured funding from EA to ensure agricultural representation on its Board, provide technical expertise for agriculture-related studies, and co-fund with water companies detailed environmental investigations in key catchments. This dedicated focus on agriculture ensures that the needs of the farming community are integrated into WRE’s broader water resource management strategies and plans.
Public Water Supply:
- Household water consumption has fallen to a record low of 134.7 litres per head per day, the lowest regional average on record. This positive trend in line with national and regional targets is due to water company action to roll out smart metering, bring more customers onto a metered tariff, and implement behaviour change initiatives.
- Leakage from water company networks is also decreasing, although some regulatory targets for 2025 may be missed. Essex & Suffolk Water achieved the lowest leakage per property in England in 2023/24 with Anglian Water and Cambridge Water not far behind. Progress should accelerate as smart meters are rolled out, but longer-term improvements remain reliant on more expensive and disruptive mains pipe replacement programmes.
- Significant progress has been made on strategic supply-side infrastructure projects. Both the Fens and Lincolnshire reservoir projects in WRE’s plan have now been endorsed by the Secretary of State and a second phase of public consultation on each scheme has concluded. Two potential desalination plants at Bacton and Mablethorpe, along with a third new major reservoir in the region in North Suffolk, have secured development funding and will join the list of Strategic Resource Options being overseen nationally by government regulators. A first round of public consultation on proposals and designs for the Grand Union Canal transfer scheme – a key enabler of new water resources for Cambridgeshire – was also launched last summer.
Environment:
- Abstraction reforms are being implemented to protect sensitive environments. Approximately 20 permanent abstraction licenses impacting the health of the Ants Broads & Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) were modified in October 2024. Further reviews and changes are anticipated with the pace of reform likely to accelerate in 2025.
- WRE has commenced a programme of detailed investigations to explore the best ways to improve the region’s water environments for the long term including through the use of catchment and nature-based solutions. Pilot investigations, supported by funding from Anglian Water and the Environment Agency, are underway in the Cam & Ely Ouse and East Suffolk catchments.
Despite delays caused by the 2024 General Election, progress is also being made on key policy initiatives including mandatory water efficiency labelling and tighter building regulations for water efficiency. WRE continues to take an active role in the government’s Cambridge Water Scarcity Group that is helping to accelerate action to secure more water for growth whilst protecting the environment.
The 2024 Progress Report establishes a strong foundation for WRE’s work moving forward. We have already begun to commission studies that will underpin the next iteration of our Regional Plan, due in around five years’ time. Key priorities for 2025 include:
- Completion of early environmental investigations to identify how best to restore natural flows in chalk rivers, headwaters, wetlands and other sensitive waterbodies.
- Supporting the innovative solutions being identified through Local Resource Option studies for agriculture and integrating these findings into our regional planning tools.
- Further progress on strategic infrastructure projects, including the Fens, Lincolnshire and North Suffolk reservoirs, and early work to develop desalination options and advanced water recycling schemes.
- Scaling up smart metering and water efficiency programmes, backed by new funding and regulatory approaches confirmed by Ofwat in their 2024 Price Review last month.
- Continued engagement with the energy, navigation, leisure and industrial sectors to help them plan for meeting their future water needs in a sustainable way.
- Influencing key policy initiatives set to be introduced by national and local government, including through the Cambridge Water Scarcity Group.
Dr. Paul Leinster CBE, Independent Chair of Water Resources East, emphasised the importance of continuing cross-sector collaboration: “There is much to celebrate in presenting this first annual progress report on WRE’s Regional Water Resources Plan. The progress described in today’s report has been the result of a genuine collective effort between government, regulators, sector representatives working within and for agriculture, energy, navigation, water companies and industry over the past twelve months. I look forward to another busy year of progress ahead.”
WRE’s annual progress report for 2024 will be launched formally at a webinar on Tuesday 21st January at 2pm. This is free to join – register to attend here.