Anglian Water Services

Last week, we were pleased to welcome the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP to Suffolk, to see progress of our new storage reservoir. Once complete, the reservoir will supply part of our 330-kilometre strategic pipeline, which will allow us to move water from the wettest parts of our region in North Lincolnshire, to the driest in Essex. Our climate is changing rapidly and although it may not always feel like it, we are one of the driest regions in the UK, and one of the fastest growing. Without this critical new pipeline - which is also one of biggest water capital delivery and environmental protection programmes in Europe - there simply wouldn't be enough water left in our region to supply future generations. We know that the East of England's economic potential is nationally important to deliver the Government's growth agenda. For that reason, there is significant investment focused on enabling sustainable development within our region. During his visit, we were able to show The Secretary of State just how fundamental this project is to our region. If we don’t invest in water infrastructure our region will face a water deficit of around 600 million litres a day by 2050. With the water industry planning £104 billion in private-sector investment, the new planning reform means the approval process for critical infrastructure projects, like SPA and nine new reservoirs across the UK - two of which are in our region - will be streamlined and more efficient. This will be hugely beneficial as we head into our next five year business plan, with the aim of progressing the pipelines even further into Suffolk and Norfolk to ensure the East of England remains resilient to drought for generations to come. We look forward to continuing to work closely with The Secretary of State to enable transformative levels of growth across our region. Read more about our legacy pipeline project here: https://lnkd.in/exrW3FRB #MajorInfrastructure #ThingsCanOnlyGetCleaner #ThrivingEast

Our 330-kilometre strategic pipeline isn’t just leaving a legacy below ground. This winter, our teams offered their time in a community-led collaboration to plant a new orchard for the residents of Glinton, near Peterborough, with six species of fruit trees to supply residents for years to come.   While our pipeline is crucial for improving water resilience and reducing the risk of drought, we are also committed to making a tangible difference on a local level, especially in the communities we work so closely with. As well as providing a source of fresh fruit, we hope to bring a source of community and inspire the next generation to spend time in nature.   You can learn about our strategic pipelines here: www.anglianwater.co.uk/spa   #StrategicPipeline #Orchard #Growth

2025, marks four-years since the completion of a £36 million upgrade at Heigham Water Treatment Works (WTW). This project was essential to ensuring a resilient and sustainable water supply for residents in Norwich. In various forms, the treatments works have been at the same site for over 100 years. As the population grows, so does the demand for clean drinking water and we having to think differently about how we balance the needs of our customers with those of the environment.   Working alongside our Anglian Water @one Alliance, this three-year project brought the standard treatment process right into the modern age by installing the UK’s largest ever submerged ultrafiltration plant.  The state-of-the-art membrane filters water to an incredibly high standard –it’s fibres can even remove molecules from the common cold. By doing this work, we were able to increase the works’ capacity which will allow us to have enough water to completely fill 500 baths every single minute!    It was also during this project that we also used Virtual Reality (VR) as part of our design process for the first time. By using a VR model, we were able to deliver the project more efficiently, save £1.5 million by reworking the original plans and reducing our carbon footprint on site by 88%. This process has now become business as usual for the @one Alliance, putting us at the forefront of new technologies.   The investment at Heigham WTW is just one example of how we’re working to improve the resilience of our assets, as they cope with the pressures of a growing population. However, as we ramp up to deliver our biggest investment programme ever, we need skilled and ambitious people to join our team. Over the next 5 years we’ll be hiring over 500 people to join our @one alliance and help deliver critical investment programmes that will enable growth and resilience in our region, while still protecting and enhancing the environment. To find out more about the roles we have available in our alliances, visit https://lnkd.in/eP3AKb5m.   Read more about the Heigham project in our latest blog from @one's Head of Engineering Richard Lee here: https://lnkd.in/e8zTKiPr #Investment #Growth #Engineering

Thank you The UK Water Report and Karma Loveday for covering our recent 'Investing in a Thriving East' growth conference. Last month, we brought together some of the East of England's most influential voices to discuss the scale of the challenge facing our region. With the government laying out its ambitious plans to build 1.5million houses by 2029, we need to think differently about how we plan to deliver sustainable growth at this scale collectively. Over the next five years, we’re planning to deliver an investment programme worth £11bn. This level of investment will be transformational. It includes infrastructure projects unlike anything seen for hundreds of years in the country - planning for two new reservoirs, hundreds of acres of new wetlands and 700km of new pipelines. It is critical to support our growing region, keeping customers’ taps running and toilets flushing in the face of unprecedented challenges of more than 700,000 people expected to make this region their home alongside a rapidly changing climate. Read more about our plans for the next AMP: https://lnkd.in/ewEF-A3f #Investment #Growth #ThrivingEast

Lady Caca, Brush-sta Rhymes and Shania Drain are just a few of the names given to hedgehog devices currently deployed in a targeted section of our network to help prevent blockages. In a bid to raise awareness about the impact of unflushables on our network, we're trialling the use of new metal, hedgehog-shaped devices to capture, count and properly dispose of anything that could cause blockages in our network. In the first area to be tested as part of the pilot scheme – a small region of Northamptonshire with fewer than 10,000 households – the hedgehog devices captured over 5,000 wipes in just the first two weeks. Wet wipes are not designed to be flushed. They combine with fats, oils and greases – that also don’t belong in our sewers – and create fatbergs that block the pipes and can cause sewer flooding issues. We all have a responsibility to keep the sewers clear of blockages, which if left to build up, can result in flooding of homes and business. Not to mention the costly impact it can have on businesses or the harm it can cause to the environment. Read more about the hedgehog devices addressing unflushables: #Unflushables #JustBinIt #Blockages

As part of our industry leading smart meter programme, we’ve finished installing our initial rollout of 1.1 million smart meters across the region - an investment worth £153 million. Achieving this milestone, ahead of time, means we’re on track to deliver smart meters across the entire region by 2030. Together with our partners Arqiva, and alliance partners Kier Group and Clancy, we’re installing over 1,000 smart meters a day. As a result, we publish approximately 8.4 million of these meter readings in customers' portals every day. This programme has given our customers better visibility of their water usage than ever before, so they can better manage their household bills as well as reducing their water consumption. Additionally, the increased visibility has helped us find and fix an average of 14 litres of water per property per day in leaks since the rollout started. This leakage reduction has helped stop the equivalent of more than 14million of litres of water from going to waste every day. 1 megalitre of water a day can supply around 7000 customers – so fixing these leaks contributes significantly towards supporting growth in the region, which is one of the country’s driest. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eBhF4HXw #SmartMeters #Growth #WaterResources

Incident management in the water industry is no easy task. With so many moving parts, responding effectively to disruptions requires precision, coordination, and adaptability. Which is exactly what our team had to demonstrate when faced with several issues with the sewer network at a housing development in Ise Valley, Wellingborough.     Following an extensive investigation, it was determined that the sewer mains under the development had reached the end of their operational life. To prevent any leaks, we had to reline the existing pipe – expanding its lifespan by 100 years.    To make sure our customers could still use their facilities as normal and remove the need for noisy pumping equipment, our Anglian Water @one Alliance constructed a temporary overland pipeline. Although it was quite an unusual sight, the overland pipeline meant disruption could be kept to a minimum for residents over the festive period.     Whether it’s a burst main, extreme weather event or disruption to supply, incidents can escalate quickly and are never straight forward. It’s about balancing rapid response with long-term strategy to keep communities’ taps running and toilets flushing. Over the next five years, we’re renewing more than 600km of vulnerable pipes to futureproof our water mains and sewers against the impact of climate change.     Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g-pkbinT   #SewerRehabilitation #Growth #IncidentManagement

Serving the driest part of the UK means that making the most of the water we have available is in our DNA. We put the same amount of water into supply as we did 30 years ago, despite serving a third more customers. This has only been made possible through relentlessly driving down leakage, helping our customers manage their water use and an industry leading metering programme meaning that over 90% of the homes in our region have water meters. But with more than 700,000 people expected to call our region home in the next 20 years, and the pressures of climate change in an already water scarce region, means it won’t be enough to keep taps running.    So, what’s next? How do we plan so there’s enough to go around for future generations? We recently hit the halfway mark on our legacy pipeline project, which will see around 340 kilometres of pipe connecting the wettest parts of our region to the driest, ensuring everyone can access clean drinking water. We’re also progressing plans to build two new reservoirs in Lincolnshire and the Fens, which will provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver lasting benefits for the local community. Looking even further ahead, we’ll also be considering how we can make us of water reuse schemes and desalination plants too.     You can read more here about how we plan decades ahead to manage our water resources: https://lnkd.in/erRHnZ_f    #Growth #WaterSupply #Investment 

Thrilled to have hosted 40 colleagues from Anglian Water Services, Southend-on-Sea City Council, University of Essex, King's College London and the Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust for a fantastic day of planting at our innovative mushroom-powered wetland. A huge amount of effort went into making this happen, but the results speak for themselves—true partnership in action! A big thank you to everyone who joined us today and to those who helped with the logistics of getting the plants from the nursery to Benfleet WRC. Your support made this possible!

Throughout the PR24 Price Review, we have sought to deliver a plan that addresses both the current and future needs of our region. The Government has made clear its priority to drive growth to stimulate the economy and has already highlighted the critical role water plays in this. Our £11 billion investment plan was designed to support our region and prepare it against the unprecedented pressures of climate change and population growth. This sustained investment would help us prepare for these challenges, by delivering essential investment in water and sewerage infrastructure, and protecting and enhancing the environment – all of which will create jobs and bolster the local economy, not just in this five-year period, but the decades beyond. It included plans for developing two new reservoirs, completing the first strategic water mains interconnector of its kind, offering a new level of resilience against future drought, delivering hundreds of acres of nature-based projects and providing our customers with our largest ever package of support. However, having factored in nearly £1 billion of efficiency savings, our PR24 plan was already stretching and to secure this unprecedented scale of investment, it requires a viable sector, set up for the long term. Unfortunately the current settlement does not allow us to deliver the long term investment needed in infrastructure or allow us to maintain our existing network to the level we believe is necessary for future resilience. We do not take this decision lightly, but with this in mind, we need to make use of the next step in the regulatory process and ask the CMA to reconsider whether the right balance has been struck. You can read our full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/eiCQ-jbn #Investment #PR24 #WaterIndustry