How we plan water resources

Making sure we continue to have a reliable supply of water takes careful planning and co-ordination, nationally and regionally.

The National Framework for Water Resources explores England’s long-term water needs. It considers what actions are required to provide water in the future, and how much is needed in each region.

The five regional water resource groups develop regional plans. In our region, that’s Water Resources East (WRE). Regional plans set out more detail on the water supplies for the region, including the needs of the environment. The emerging WRE regional plan identifies the need for new reservoirs as a key element of the overall package to ensure our region can continue to thrive.

Water companies then develop a Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) setting their plans and investments – such as improving efficiency; addressing leakage; restoring the environment; and building new water resources.

Anglian Water’s and Cambridge Water’s 2019 WRMPs set out what we need to do from 2020 to 2045. Both plans identified new reservoirs as a crucial solution to meet the growing demands on water supplies in the East of England.

The proposed new reservoir is part of a process set up by the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) to develop new strategic water resource solutions. RAPID is made up of the three water regulators – Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).

RAPID assesses proposals for new large-scale, strategic investments to make sure water companies are progressing proposals that best meet their customers’ needs. This assessment is carried out when companies submit information about their proposals at points in time called ‘gates’. There are five gates in total. Gate one was in July 2021 and we submitted our gate two report in November 2022. The gate two report outlines how we have identified a site and developed an early concept design.