Northumbrian Water Group has submitted its £4.5 billion AMP8 Business Plan for 2025-30 to Ofwat for its member companies Northumbrian Water and Essex and Suffolk Water.

NWG has submitted a £4,5 billion plan for Northumbrian Water – the largest investment programme in the region in the last 30 years, including:

• .£947 million to reduce the use of storm overflows and improve bathing water quality, especially at Berwick, Seaton Carew, Redcar and Marske.
• c.£8 million will be spent on improving drinking water quality.
• c.£7.5 million extra to reduce leakage.
• £127 million in adapting for climate change to protect its network from power failures and flooding by investing
• £50 million to repair and replace the aging network of water pipes.
• Around £38 million on innovative catchment-management and nature-based solutions to improve river water quality and protect Teesmouth.

Announcing the plans, NWG said that bills in the North East are still the lowest in the country.

Bills for Northumbrian Water will need to rise to £33.80 per month on average in 2025/26 increasing over time until they reach £38.70 per month in 2029/30, excluding inflation. Overall, this is an 18% increase compared to 2020-25.

Essex and Suffolk Water will be investing £1.5 billion in its region throughout 2025-30, creating 3,000 jobs.

The £1.5 billion investment includes:

• £386 million in new water supplies to ensure the security of water supplies in the future.
• £530 million to reduce leakage, roll out smart meters, promote behaviour change and invest in new supplies
• £17.5 million on reducing leakage further using innovative new technologies – the company already has the lowest leakage levels in the country.
• £8 million on adapting for climate change to protect the network from power failures and flooding
• £25 million to repair and replace the aging network of water pipes.
• £73.4 million on introducing compulsory meters. Currently 64% of all properties in Essex and 69% of properties in Suffolk have a water meter and all homes will be required to be fitted with a smart water meter by 2035.

Essex and Suffolk is a water only company with wastewater services for customers provided by either Thames Water or Anglian Water. Their water bills will need to rise to £22 per month on average in 2025/26 increasing over time to £24.10 per month in 2029/30, excluding inflation. Overall, this is a 12.4% increase compared to 2020-25.

NWG - PR24 will require a step change increase in investment

Publishing the plans, NWG said its enhancement programme for PR24 is much larger than at previous price reviews and the main driver for the proposed increase in water bills during 2020-25. The Group’s long-term delivery strategy shows that it does not expect this to reduce again in future reviews. This reflects three key external pressures, specifically, increased statutory obligations, increased customer expectations and growing pressure on the company’s networks.

Commenting on the increased level of investment, NWG said the business plan for PR24 delivers the first five years of its long-term strategy. In addition, while PR24 will require a step change increase in investment for the business compared to previous business plans, scenario analysis shows that this increased level of expenditure is likely to be maintained until at least 2050.

The business plan states:

“The key drivers for the majority of our investment programme stem from legal requirements. As a provider of an essential service that is critical to maintain public health and can have large environmental impacts, we operate in a heavily regulated sector…..

“However, it is new statutory requirements that are the main driver of our investment programme, particularly those aimed at improving the environment. These new requirements arise primarily through the water industry national environment programme (WINEP) which is developed jointly by the Environment Agency, Defra and Ofwat.

“Due to large new requirements in areas such as storm overflows and monitoring, our PR24 plan includes a large increase in WINEP expenditure. At PR19 we got an overall WINEP allowance of £152m whereas this time at PR24 we are looking at £1.7bn of expenditure being required with roughly £1bn of that to address storm overflows.”