Sutton and East Surrey Water’s long term plans to secure water supplies for its 670,000 customers have finally been given the go-ahead.

The Company has published its 25-year Water Resources Management Plan after Owen Paterson MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs prior to this week's Cabinet reshuffle, confirmed he was satisfied with the Plan.

The Plan, which covers the period from 2015 to 2040, sets out a range of investment work and activities that the Company will deliver to help keep water flowing for existing and future customers.

Highlights of the Plan for the next five years include:

• Installing a further 32,000 water meters to unmetered homes, a move backed by customers who were consulted on the plan
• Continuing to find and fix more leaks, to reduce leakage by a further 500,000 litres a day - underpinning the Company’s record as an industry leader in leak detection work
• Delivering water efficiency programmes and devices to schools, care homes and the hospitality sector
• Increasing the resilience of its distribution network by laying new trunk mains
• Ongoing improvements to Bough Beech Water Treatment Works so it can treat more water abstracted from the River Eden

Lester Sonden, Engineering Director at Sutton and East Surrey Water, said:

“This Plan plays a critical role in determining how we will meet growth in demand for water from today’s and tomorrow’s customers, while at the same time protecting the environment on which we rely for those water supplies."

“Furthermore, a key plank of producing this Plan has been working closely with our neighbouring water companies, through the Water Resources in the South East Group, to develop ways of sharing any surpluses of water across a region that is classified as being in serious water stress.

“We are pleased to have played an active role in those discussions, and so our Plan includes longer-term schemes which will help transfer any surpluses of water to neighbouring water companies through new pipelines.”