Drought plan
Droughts are naturally occurring events that occur when there is below average rainfall for prolonged periods of time. We need plans to manage our system when droughts happen.
Drought Plan 2027-2032
We are in the process of preparing our statutory five-year Drought Plan for 2027 to 2032, which will replace our current Drought Plan 2022-2027. The Drought Plan, taking into account revised guidance from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, will set out how during dry and drought years we will manage our resources and water supplies balancing the interests of our customers, environment and wider economy.
To take into account the potential environmental impacts of our Drought Plan, we will be carrying out Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) and Water Framework Directive (WFD) Assessment that will assess the implications of our drought measures on the environment.
Our draft Drought Plan 2027 to 2032 is due to be published by 31st March 2026.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping and Screening Report
We have published a draft SEA Scoping and Screening Report that sets out the current and future environmental baseline that may be affected by our proposed drought measures and methods to assess the effects on environmental features. This document can be found below. If you would like to make any comments on the scope of our assessment please send these before 12 December 2025 to future.consultation@severntrent.co.uk.
Maintaining our service
The Water Act (2003) made it a statutory requirement for water companies to produce and maintain a Drought Plan every five years. Our Drought Plan sets out how we will manage our resources and supply system during dry and drought years, whilst balancing the interests of customers, the environment and the wider economy. The Drought Plan Directions 2020 required water undertakers to submit a draft drought plan to Defra by the 1st of April 2021.
We submitted our new Draft Drought Plan in March 2021, formally consulted on the draft plan, produced a Statement of Response and a revised plan.
We have finalised our Drought Plan 2022-2027 which can be found below.
On the grounds of national security, in the Drought Plan we have omitted the names and locations of certain critical national infrastructure.
Defra gave us permission to publicly consult on this draft plan on 10 May 2021.
We also undertook a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), a Water Framework Directive assessment and a Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) of our draft 2022 to 2027 Drought Plan to take environmental impacts into account.
We consulted on our draft SEA between 1st February 2021 and 8th March 2021.
To request copies of our current Water Framework Directive and Habitats Regulation Assessment reports, contact the team by emailing futureconsultation@severntrent.co.uk
If you would like to read a paper version of our 2022-2027 Drought Plan, you may do so at our main Coventry Office by enquiring at reception.
Our address is:
Severn Trent Centre
2 St. John’s Street
Coventry
CV1 2LZ