Government steps in to deliver new reservoirs amid water supply concerns
The Environment Secretary has designated two new reservoirs as ‘nationally significant’ to speed up the planning process.
The Government has stepped in to take control of the planning process for two major new reservoirs, as it warns UK water supplies are under threat.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has designated two new reservoir projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire as “nationally significant”, escalating them from local planning to central Government.
The move aims to streamline and fast-track the delivery of the two new reservoirs, the first for more than 30 years, to improve water resources for more than three quarters of a million homes in some of England’s most water-stressed areas and unlock the building of new homes.
The Government also says it will legislate so that major reservoirs will automatically be designated as “nationally significant” to make it easier to get them built and secure future water supplies.
Officials warn that, without action to build new reservoirs, rapid population growth, crumbling assets and a warming climate mean demand for drinking water could outstrip supply by the middle of the next decade.
A lack of water supplies is also holding back the construction of thousands of homes in parts of the country such as Cambridge, they warn.
The two reservoirs which have been designated as nationally significant are being proposed by Anglian Water, which wants to build the Lincolnshire reservoir south of Sleaford and is partnering with Cambridge Water for the Fens Reservoir between Chatteris and March in Cambridgeshire.
Under the plans, the Lincolnshire reservoir, which would provide up to 166 million litres a day for up to 500,000 homes, would be completed by 2040 and the Fens Reservoir, supplying 87 million litres a day to 250,000 homes in the driest region of the UK, would be completed by 2036.
Both projects will now progress to the consultation phase, gathering views from communities and stakeholders, the Government said.
Water companies across England have committed to bringing nine new reservoirs online by 2050, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands and Somerset, with the potential to supply 670 million litres of extra water per day.
Water Minister Emma Hardy said the Government was “intervening in the national interest and slashing red tape to make the planning process faster to unblock nine new reservoirs”.
She said it would secure water supply for future generations and unlock the building of thousands of homes.
