South West and South East Water ‘most environmentally ambitious’

South West Water and South East Water have shown the highest level of environmental ambition in their PR19 business plans, according to the Blueprint for Water coalition.

The companies topped an environmental league table which assesses how well their main PR19 business plan documents reflected the environmental asks of the group.

“For the water and sewerage companies Northumbrian, South West, Wessex Water and Anglian Water come out top in our assessment of how well their main business plan document reflected our environmental asks,” the Blueprint said.

“South West Water, Southern Water and Northumbrian Water also do well in terms of the level of ambition of their common performance commitments most relevant to our environmental asks.

“Southern Water and Wessex Water had the greatest number and coverage of bespoke performance commitments relevant to our environmental asks.”

For the water-only companies South East Water is the standout performer closely followed by SES Water.

Thames Water and Severn Trent Water are at the bottom of the water and sewerage company rankings, both in terms of the review of what their business plans say on environmental matters and on the level of ambition of their common commitments on issues such as pollution and leakage.

Both companies were however awarded blueprint “blue stars” for projects which demonstrated sector-leading innovation and ambition – Severn Trent Water for its bespoke biodiversity enhancement project and Thames Water for its smarter catchments initiative.

Other companies awarded a blue star for standout projects include: Southern Water for its target 100 demand management initiative, Anglian Water for its bespoke commitment on natural capital, Portsmouth Water for the commitment in its business plan to addressing the impacts of abstraction and South East Water for its ongoing commitment to working with stakeholders on catchment management

In May 2017, the Blueprint for Water coalition published its “Blueprint for PR19”, setting out its view of the environmental challenges and opportunities facing the water sector in England.

It also set out 17 things the coalition wanted water companies to commit to in their PR19 business plans for 2020-25 to ensure that the £5 billion plus to be spent on behalf of customers works for people and wildlife.

Now the business plans have been published, the Blueprint for Water has assessed how well it thinks the water companies have responded to its asks on the environment.

Overall, it says, there has been a positive step change in environmental ambition from the water sector in this planning cycle compared with PR14 business plans.

More than £5 billion will be invested in environmental improvements over the next five years. This includes more than 350 catchment management projects to deal with environmental problems at source rather than end of pipe; commitments to reduce leakage by more than 15 per cent; to reduce water demand and to deal with unsustainable abstraction.

A number of companies will also be assessing the natural capital they depend on and starting to factor it into future decision-making.