Severn Trent has announced it will invest over £4.4 billion on its storm overflows to help improve river health across its region.  The investment is part of the water company’s Storm Overflow Action Plan to meet government and industry targets.

The Midlands-based water company will make the investment over a 25-year period up to 2050, as part of its plans to reduce spills from storm overflows.   Some of this investment forms part of the bigger £12.9 billion investment programme from 2025 to ensure the security of water supply and will deliver significant improvements in the region’s water and sewerage system.

The utility will invest £4.4 billion across its network on a mix of improvements, including increasing capacity of storage tanks and designing nature-based solutions,

A total of 2,472 storm overflows will undergo investment – each with its own individual action plan - with a variety of improvements ranging from increasing the capacity of storage tanks to introducing green nature-based solutions.

The company is also investing to ensure rivers are monitored closer than ever before with 100% of its storm overflows with monitors – Severn Trent is now analysing around 300 million pieces of data a year helping to prioritise investment.

The improvements will be split across Severn Trent’s counties and forms part of the water company’s Storm Overflow Action Plan (SOAP).  The plan, which will be regularly updated as improvements are made, will reduce the number of spills into watercourses across the region, ensuring that by 2040 no overflow will spill more than 10 times in an average year in high priority areas, and in all areas by 2045, five years ahead of Government targets.

Bob Stear, Severn Trent’s Chief Engineer said:

“This is a huge long-term investment plan for our region, improving storm overflows and bringing benefits to rivers over the coming years.

“Today’s announcement marks another significant milestone in our drive to deliver real improvements in river health. This is why we launched Get River Positive that has already delivered great results, despite the region having experienced seven named storms between September and December, contributing to some of the wettest months on record. And we know there is still more to do, which is why this investment is so important – not just to us, but to our region’s rivers and the communities they serve.” 

Accelerating improvement and investment activities

Severn Trent recently raised £1 billion of additional investment from its shareholders to help finance and deliver plans sooner, enabling it to move and act now to accelerate spend, rather than wait until 2025, when the new investment period starts. More than 70 projects designed to contribute to spills reduction will be completed in 2024/5, worth around £384 million including:

Creating new storage and combined sewer separation at Hinckley, Leicestershire and increasing storage to halve spill volumes in Carlton, Nottinghamshire

£76 million investment in Mansfield installing sustainable drainage to reduce flooding to benefit the whole community

A £25 million project in Stroud to upgrade the sewer network which will reduce future sewer flooding and also protect rivers in the area. The new CSO site and extra capacity will mean that there will be fewer activations into watercourses, such as the River Frome.

A £78 million investment to improve the water quality along more than 50km of river in Shropshire and Warwickshire and help move two stretches (on the rivers Teme and Leam) towards bathing quality by 2025

As schemes progress more detail will be shared on what action is planned for every storm overflow in every waterbody. A live ‘Event Duration Monitor’ map is due to be launched later this year, providing a tool for people to see what investment plans are taking place on all storm overflows across the region.

The £4.4 billionn investment will be divided up into regions, with the investment for each county below.

Birmingham and the Black Country - £686m

Derbyshire - £662m

Gloucestershire - £273m

Herefordshire - £16m

Leicestershire - £525m

Lincolnshire - £88m

Northamptonshire - £7m

Nottinghamshire - £630m

Rutland - £8m

Shropshire - £256m

Staffordshire - £643m

Warwickshire - £300m

Worcestershire - £253m

Yorkshire £81m

The investment forms part of Severn Trent’s newly-published Storm Overflow Action Plan, which follows discussions with the Government, Defra, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, and other key industry stakeholders.  

The plan, which will be updated as improvements are made, reveals steps being taken by the water company to meet targets set out in the Government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan (SODRP).