Thames Water has published its  first 25-year Strategic Direction Statement Taking Care of Water – Our plan for a sustainable future. Responding to climate change, tackling leakage, improving water efficiency and delivering high quality customer service have been identified as top priorities for Thames Water and its customers for the future.

The strategy, which sets the company’s direction for 2010 to 2035, is the culmination of the company’s largest-ever public consultation exercise, which included discussion groups with customers, stakeholder workshops, interviews with MPs and an online consultation, prompting over 2,600 individual comments.

Thames Water CEO, David Owens said: “We’re delighted by the response we received to the draft strategy we published in the autumn and thank everyone who took the trouble to contribute. All comments have been considered, and we are confident we have a document reflecting the views of a large proportion of our customers. “Taking Care of Water outlines what we think the future holds and how we will respond. It also provides a summary of what our customers, employees and other stakeholders have told us and shows how we've taken this into account in our planning. “With this clear strategic direction, we can now focus on developing our plans in greater detail, with the Strategic Business Plan for the next five years due to be submitted to our regulator, Ofwat, next summer. “There are serious challenges ahead. We must plan to meet the demands of future generations sustainably, continue to cut our leakage, and above all, ensure that our services continue to represent value for money and remain affordable. “Our region is predicted to see population swell by around 800,000 in the next decade, but we operate in one of the driest regions in the country, and in London the rainfall is lower than Istanbul, Dallas or Rome. More investment will be needed as we concentrate on managing demand and seeking new sources of water, as well as taking action to mitigate the impacts of climate change, particularly improving our sewer network so it is better able to cope with increase in heavy storms predicted as weather patterns become more erratic. “We must also take more account of the environment in our planning, and our strategy highlights our intention to find ways to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2015, and increase the use of renewable energy at our sites”. Key priorities for Thames include :

• Continuing the Victorian mains renewal programme to maximise leakage reduction.
• Planning additional sources of water to guarantee the needs of London and SE England can be met efficiently in the face of population growth and climate change –potentially including a new reservoir in Oxfordshire
• Reducing the number of customers’ homes threatened by sewer flooding.
• Increasing efforts on water efficiency and progressively metering domestic customers
• Reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2015