The Environment Agency, working closely with Natural England, has secured the largest-ever commitment from UK water companies to clean up the environment and invest in new infrastructure since privatisation.
The Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) sets out over 24,000 actions UK water companies must take over the next five years to meet their legal requirements for the environment.
This series of targeted interventions represents a £22.1bn investment in the environment – four times more than was secured in the last Price Review and will deliver tangible benefits for our water system and customers.
As part of the PR24 process, the Environment Agency assessed actions proposed by UK water companies and, alongside Ofwat and Natural England, provided technical guidance to make sure these actions will provide direct solutions to environmental pressures and help drive nature recovery.
David Henderson, Chief Executive of Water UK, stated: “This programme will be the largest amount of money ever spent on the natural environment. It will help to support economic growth, build more homes, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.”
UK water companies will boost biodiversity with new projects
The agreed actions will lead to improvements in water infrastructure to secure future supply, habitats, biodiversity and drinking water quality.
For example, the UK water companies have submitted plans to establish trials to remove nitrate, restore nationally important chalk streams, and install bespoke biosecurity measures to remove invasive species.
Further goals set out under WINEP include:
- Reducing the amount of water abstracted, leading to an estimated 60 million litres of water being retained in the environment every day.
- Protecting and enhancing 13,500 km of rivers.
- Upgrading 2,350 storm overflows, leading to an estimated annual reduction of sewage spills by 85,000 annually.
- Improving 21 newly designated bathing water sites across England.
- Reducing phosphorous inputs to the environment at over 800 sewage treatment works.
- Installing 3,500 monitors at emergency overflow sites.
Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency, explained: “This unprecedented level of investment represents a vital step forward towards ensuring we have clean, safe, and abundant water now and for future generations.
“Working with UK water companies on this £22bn programme is a crucial way to realise the government’s goals of stimulating development and boosting economic growth while ensuring the sector can meet its ambitious environment commitments.”
Projects will help boost economic growth in the UK
The Environment Agency and other regulators will drive UK water companies to embrace state-of-the-art technologies and groundbreaking innovations when delivering the actions set out under WINEP.
These collaborative efforts are crucial to cutting pollution, managing water efficiency, and increasing resilience to climate change for the benefit of both nature and people.
By doing so, we and industry can stimulate development and support the Government’s objective of boosting economic growth.
“The scale of investment in the WINEP programme is a positive step towards delivering sustainable outcomes for the water environment, nature recovery, biodiversity improvement and sustainable growth,” said Marian Spain, Chief Executive of Natural England.
“Natural England will be working to maximise the opportunity of this significant investment, to get full value for money via integrated approaches and work with our partners, including the Environment Agency, water companies and Defra, to help deliver this ambitious programme.”
The investment was secured through Ofwat’s final determinations, which were announced in December and have been factored into upcoming changes to customer bills.