About us

Ofwat made their final decisons on our plans for Severn Trent and Hafren Dyfrdwy in 2019. You can check Ofwat's final determinations and related documents on the Ofwat website.

You can read the key documents about how we will carry out our plans in the Severn Trent Regulatory Library, and in Hafren Dyfrdwy's Regulatory Library.

If you're an investor and you'd like to know more about our plans in details, you can download and view the investor summary of the PR19 business plan, and the investor summary about Ofwat's decision to fast-track our Severn Trent business plan.

On our journey to the final plan we follow the statutory timetable set out by Defra and the Environment Agency, we hold regular consultations with our
customers and stakeholders to identify potential solutions, and we consider the environmental impacts alongside affordability.

Our Water Resources Management Plan must demonstrate

• Resilience to a range of risks – e.g. drought, loss of supplies.
• Flexibility and adaptability – the plan must be robust to changes to supply and demand forecasts in the future.
• Approach to climate change – drier summers and wetter winters make it harder to meet peak demand.
• Sustainable abstraction options – which don’t deplete our natural resources or have a negative effect on biodiversity and our local river environment.
• Planned proactive work – proactive maintenance of our network to reduce amount of water wasted by leakage and optimise the use of our sources.

We published our final Water Resources Management Plan in August 2019.

In February 2018 we published our draft WRMP for stakeholder consultation and we were pleased to receive comments from 22 different stakeholders. 

We reviewed each of these comments and, where appropriate, we used the feedback to update and improve our plan.

In September 2018 we published a summary of the stakeholder feedback and we described the resulting changes to our plan.

We also confirmed that the changes we made did not materially alter the recommendations made in our draft WRMP, as laid out in our Statement of Response.

In July 2019 we received approval from the Secretary of State that we should publish our final Water Resources Management Plan.

In July 2020, the government along with our regulators penned a letter to water companies inviting the water sector to play their part in the country’s Green Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a socially purposeful company, we were keen to get involved and recognised the role we can play in helping to meet the economic and social challenges that our country faces – so we started talking to our customers and got working on plans right away. 

• Life Beyond the Pandemic - A Briefing for Customers and Other Stakeholders
• A guide to our submission
• Summary - Creating bathing rivers
• Summary - Decarbonising Water Resources
• Summary - Building sustainable flood-resilient communities
• Summary - Taking care of customers supply pipes

• Business case 01 - Creating bathing rivers
• Business case 02 - Decarbonising Water Resources
• Business case 03 - Building sustainable flood-resilient communities
• Business case 04 - Taking care of customers supply pipes
• Business case 05 - Accelerating environmental improvements
• Business case 06 - Smart metering

• Annex 01 - On track performance
• Annex 02 - Data tables [REDACTED]
• Annex 03 - Customer engagement
• Annex 04 - Affordability and financeability
• Annex 05 - Creating jobs and improving skills
• Annex 06 - Net zero carbon
• Annex 07 - Green recovery for well being
• Annex 08 - Stakeholders and third party funding
• Annex 09 - Cost robustness and efficiency
• Annex 10 - Deliverability of the green recovery

Climate change and population growth is putting increasing pressure on the UK’s water resources. In less than 25 years a lack of water could limit growth, jobs and impact people’s everyday lives.  

Water companies are developing plans to meet this challenge, such as reducing demand and tackling leakage, as well as developing new sources of water.  At the same time, we need to make sure we protect the nature and wildlife that rely on the water systems which are the source of all our supplies.
Every 5 years we produce a Water Resources Management Plan, which you can see here.  That sets out how we’re going to supply our customers with the 2.4billion litres of water needed every day.

But no one water company can solve this on their own – we need to work together to make sure there is enough water in the future for all our customers, businesses and to protect the natural environment. 

As well as this, we’re working with various other water companies on a range of options – called Strategic Resource Options (SROs).  These options are in the very early stages and right now we’re concentrating on what’s possible and how we could deliver projects to help make sure everyone has enough water in the future.

To support the progression of strategic options, the Regulatory Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) has been established by Ofwat to help accelerate the development of new water infrastructure. It seeks to improve regulation and remove barriers to help the water sector respond to long-term water resources challenges. RAPID is comprised of representatives from Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.  These are all our key regulators who make sure we do the right thing for our customers and the environment.

Development funding is available to us and the other water companies who are progressing strategic solutions through RAPID.

Severn Trent is working on the following options.

• Severn to Thames Transfer
  We are working with United Utilities and Thames Water looking at the possibility of moving water from a number of sources in Wales, the North West and the Midlands to the South East of England by releasing water into the River Severn and then transferring it on to the River Thames.
  
• The Grand Union Canal
  We’re working with Affinity Water and the Canal & River Trust looking at an option that uses the existing canal infrastructure to transfer treated wastewater from Minworth in the Midlands to Affinity Water in Hertfordshire and North West London.
  
• Minworth
  A source of raw water to support either the Severn to Thames Transfer SRO, the Grand Union Canal SRO, or a combination of the two. We’re partnered in this SRO by Affinity Water
  
• Severn Trent Sources
  Options for new or increased sources of raw water.  This SRO will also support the Severn to Thames Transfer SRO
  
• Upper Derwent Valley Reservoir Expansion
  Working with Yoirkshire Water, we're looking at ways of expanding the reservoir capacity

The first stage of the RAPID process for agreeing the SROs is called ‘Gate One’.  At this stage, we must demonstrate each strategic solution’s progress and viability. This involves setting out plans for delivering the proposed solution, including early conceptual outline designs alongside strategies for engaging stakeholders, gaining planning permission and for procuring and operating the new infrastructure.

It's important to note that all our strategic solutions are in their early stages, with key details such as site selection and early concept designs still being progressed. 

On this page you will find the Gate 1 reports that were submitted to RAPID in July and December 2021, the decisions made by RAPID and the queries that we answered on each plan as part of the process.

RAPID has published its draft decisions on the first four of the SROs on the Ofwat website.

All of the Severn Trent sponsored schemes that were submitted in July 2021 have been recommended for continuation to Gate 2.  This means that work will now continue to develop each of the options in more detail.  The UDVRE scheme has not yet been assessed.

Work throughout 2020-2025 will look at appropriate regulatory, technical and environmental aspects of each of the options. If the results of these investigations are favourable it will allow them to be considered as an option in future regional and water company Water Resource Management Plans. If the scheme progresses, it could bring many benefits to the region, including investment in water infrastructure, improvements for nature and creating skilled jobs. 

The next milestone will be Gate 2 reports being submitted to RAPID in October 2022. Before then, we will be working to develop more detail on each option. Once more detail is available, we will share information on our emerging proposals including identified locations of solutions and routes of transfers with local communities, inviting feedback through a period of consultation.