Interview: John Curtin and Harvey Bradshaw, executive directors, Environment Agency

Heading into central London, I am caught in a sudden and heavy downpour that has become synonymous with the British summer. After dashing into the offices of the Environment Agency and drying myself off as best I can, I head up to meet two of the new executive directors: John Curtin, who focuses on flood and coastal risk management, and Harvey Bradshaw, whose area of expertise is the environment and business.

“Most [water firms] touch the same communities we do.”

John Curtin,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLOOD AND COASTAL RISK MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

“Water companies need to plan for the future.”

Harvey Bradshaw,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENT AND BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

For the duo, who are chatting away when I enter the boardroom, dealing with the challenges of the UK’s changing climate is only one of the issues they have to tackle. Climate change and population growth dominate the agenda, but so too does the need to achieve more with less, and finding innovative ways of pooling ideas to make that happen.

Topically, and some would say typically because the sudden downpour has now made way for clear blue skies taunting us through the window, our conversation begins with the issue of flooding.

The pair started in their roles on an acting basis in September “a couple of months before it started raining” and the winter floods of 2015 hit, according to Curtin.

Recalling his early days in the new role, he adds: “It was a microcosm of flood risk in just a few months. In my first few months, there was major flooding in Cumbria, Yorkshire, Lancashire and the northeast. There were Cobra meetings and select committees and we now look at national flood resilience in a different way.”

Bradshaw says that although his department at the agency was not directly affected by these events, “my early days were shaped by the flooding too”.

He says the EA is a “two-speed organisation”, which provides a direct and immediate response to major events such as flooding, and undertakes longer-term work dealing with the dual challenges presented by climate change and population growth.

This, the two agree, is made more difficult by the impact the government’s spending review has had on EA funding. The government’s money to the agency – which represents a quarter of the cash it receives – is reducing from £2.3 billion in 2016/17 to £1.9 billion in 2019/20.

Both Curtin and Bradshaw appear keen to play down the significance of the cuts, and their positive outlook shines through when they tell Utility Week they are tackling the challenge with the help of the water companies.

Bradshaw outlines the difficulties that the EA and the water companies are facing: the increasing extremes of heavier periods of rainfall, longer drier spells, and an increased abstraction from the natural environment.

“Water companies need to plan for the future to understand what kind of demand management is necessary. Big progress has been made in terms of leakage and water efficiency, but more is needed,” he says.

“Resilience,” pipes up Curtin. This applies as much to how water is taken from the environment as to how it is dealt with when there are is too much.

Curtin says there has been a “cluster of floods” since 2012 and that this has shifted thinking around the best way to mitigate the impact of heavy and prolonged rainfall, as well as long periods of dry weather.

The solution is a simple one: catchment-wide thinking.

“I’ve often talked about flood risk as a mosaic. There are big schemes, but there are also community resilience schemes,” says Curtin. “We are aligning better with one another [with the water companies] and with each of our energies.”

One scheme that Curtin highlights as a prime example of catchment thinking and a partnership between the agency and a water company is a project at Brunton Park, Newcastle. This saw the creation of a new river channel and a sustainable drainage system, and improvements to the existing drains.

Construction work began in October 2014 and was completed earlier this month.

He jokes: “The only downside was that we had to take two holes out of a golf course – that was hardest thing. I’ve spoken to the golfers and they’re happy as they’ve got water features on their holes, which they really love!

“There are multiple benefits. We have created a second river, allowing Northumbrian Water to use the original river channel for surface runoff, and we’ve got an extra wildlife habitat and an extra river to reduce flood risk.”

Bradshaw interjects: “What John and I are trying to do is bring the two elements together. Under the river basin management plans, we’ve got partnerships in well over 100 catchments, and there is some really good stuff going on.”

With the cuts to the EA’s budget and water companies seeing their returns trimmed back by Ofwat in this AMP, making the most of pooled resources is key, and the Brunton Park project shows what can be achieved.

Curtin says: “What’s coming with that are more efficiency targets; we have to work closely with water companies as and where we can. With the Northumbrian project, those two projects cost less than one of them would have on their own due to cost efficiencies and the economies of scale of both of us working together.

“This means they get to charge their customers less and we get to do more with the money we have.”

Bradshaw cuts in to broaden the conversation to sustainable urban drainage systems as a whole. “There are amazing examples of where city centres can be greened and hold water up in a dual-benefit way. It will also green the city, creating a sense of wellbeing and a sense of living in a nice place rather than just in a concrete jungle.”

This ideal of partnership working goes beyond flood mitigation, and Bradshaw says it will affect the radical plans being developed for abstraction reform and limit the damage to the environment caused by over-abstraction.

This follows calls made previously by the agency for dynamic abstraction reform to be introduced by the government. Bradshaw insists the reforms will address the key problem that water “hasn’t been properly valued”.

He adds that the move will allow trading to happen, as well as dynamic licensing to allow water companies, and other abstractors such as farmers, to take water from rivers and other sources when flows are high, such as after intense periods of summer rainfall.

“This is quite radical thinking,” Bradshaw says. “It will need a lot of resourcing and we need to work closely with Defra and utilities to get it working. But it does at last give the proper value to water. We should ensure in scarce catchments it is being used optimally.”

It’s at this point that Curtin leans forwards out of his chair and points out that he used to be a hydrologist and therefore has an interest in this area, particularly surrounding how climate change is forcing views to alter.

“What I have noted is how much we have relied on past records to say what the future will hold. If we have a dynamic and changing climate, do we need to look again at those underlying assumptions?

“That is part of what the national flood resilience programme has been looking at and what abstraction reform will have to look at.”

On the issue of things changing, the small matter of the European Union referendum is addressed and dismissed, at least for now.

“For the next two years, at least, we will continue to do what we have always done,” says Bradshaw, unperturbed. “We will still protect the environment, wildlife and people. It will be business as usual and it’s important to remember that we don’t get people to do stuff because of European laws; we do it to protect the environment and 96 per cent of businesses are compliant.”

Another big area of change on the horizon is the opening of the retail market in the water sector in April 2017 for non-household customers, along with the possibility for household competition.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate has previously raised concerns with Utility Week that competition could affect water quality because of the added complexity of the market. The two men are aware of the potential implications and want to be prepared for them, but expect it to drive further improvements.

“What we’ve generally said is this can drive investment and innovation and therefore should be supported,” says Bradshaw. “But markets can fail and we have to make sure there is some proper risk management in place so you’re not in a position where companies go under and people are disadvantaged or water supplies are somehow falling in quality.

“There is no reason any of that should happen, but we have to make sure that kind of risk management is built in.”

Curtin echoes his cautious optimism, saying it will be “interesting to see how the market and the consumer goes with it”, before adding that the agency and the sector will have to go in with their “eyes wide open” to ensure there are no damaging incidents of over-abstraction, flooding or pollution.

Work to drive water efficiency savings and cut down on pollution incidents and flooding has been going on under the EA’s guidance for the past 20 years. Bradshaw says he has noticed a “positive trend” in particular over the past ten years. “We’re dealing with half the number of serious pollution incidents,” he adds with pride.

The plan is for that improvement to continue over the next decade as the challenges of climate change, population growth and ever tighter budgets get tougher.

Taking this on, Bradshaw and Curtin are clear that partnership working is vital, and the friendship between the two, forged in the floodwaters of last winter, is obvious as they round off the interview with how they take their work home with them.

“We take this seriously,” Bradshaw says. “I have arguments with my wife because I turn the TV off every five minutes. We have a dual-flush TV – I mean toilet – that really would be cutting edge!”

Curtin laughs, joking he hasn’t got one of those yet. He adds that it is second nature to them, and their aim is for protecting the environment from the extremes of drought and flooding, as well as from pollution, to become second nature to the water companies and government, too.