Environment Agency secures record commitments from water sector
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-29)

The EA, working closely with Natural England, has secured the largest ever environmental commitment from water companies since privatisation.

The Environment Agency working closely with Natural England has secured the largest ever commitment from 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 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 for customers.

As part of the PR24 process the Environment Agency assessed actions proposed by 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.

The agreed actions will lead to improvements in water infrastructure to secure future supply, habitats and biodiversity and drinking water quality. For example, 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 of 13,500 km rivers,

Upgrading 2,350 storm overflows leading to an estimated annual reduction of sewage spills by of 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 overflows sites.

Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency said:

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 the 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.

We will work closely with Defra, Ofwat and other regulators to monitor water company progress and ensure they deliver what has been promised. If water companies fail to carry out their legal obligations to the environment, we will take action.”

Steve Reed, Secretary of State for the Environment said:

It is no secret that our water system needs fixing and that our rivers, lakes and seas are choked by pollution.

Customers deserve the money they pay in bills to go towards improving the service they receive, and that is why the Government will ringfence money earmarked for investment, so it can only be spent on projects like these.

We are also going further to fix our water system through the Water (Special Measures) Bill, by introducing new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bring criminal charges against lawbreakers.”

Natural England provides advice and guidance where water company activity may influence protected sites ,including Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Areas (SPA) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), such as through water abstraction and discharges, and how this can be improved through the WINEP.

Marian Spain, Chief Executive of Natural England, said:

The scale of investment in the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) is a positive step towards delivering sustainable outcomes for the water environment, nature recovery, biodiversity improvement and sustainable growth.

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.

Chris Walters, Senior Director, Price Review 2024 at Ofwat said:

We welcome the EA’s publication of the WINEP programme. In December we approved a record £104bn investment package, including over £22bn for WINEP.

This quadruples the investment of the last five years, providing water companies with an opportunity to turn around their environmental performance and regain customers’ trust by improving services.

We will monitor companies and hold them to account for their investment programmes so that they do this”.

David Henderson, Chief Executive, Water UK said:

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.

The Environment Agency and other regulators will drive 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 investment was secured through Ofwat’s final determinations announced in December and has been factored into upcoming changes to customer bills.

The WINEP data set will be published at 0800 on 29 January on GOV.UK (https://environment.data.gov.uk/dataset/39b11ea0-3cfa-4cbb-b3a1-b5950019f169)