Ofwat has given Thames Water the go-ahead for London Water Recycling scheme strategic regional water resource solution and allowed funding of £22.6 million in full to progress to gate four during AMP8.

Paul Hickey Senior Director – RAPID and Environmental Planning confirmed Ofwat’s final decision on the strategic regional water resource solution in a letter to Chris Weston Chief Executive of Thames Water yesterday, accompanied by the final decision document for the solution.

The funding is allowed for the London Water Recycling scheme to continue and progress to gate four as a single solution, with Teddington Direct River Abstraction (DRA) as the preferred suboption. The additional allowances for completing gate four in the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030 were determined as part of the Price Review 2024 (PR24) process.

The overall classification of the water company’s submissions for the London Water Recycling is that it is "Satisfactory (meets expectations in most areas)".

The final decision document includes a list of remediation issues and other steps to be taken divided into priority actions, actions and recommendations.

Prioriity actions are those that should have been completed at gate three or which for other reasons need to be completed before gate four and must now be addressed on a short timescale to make sure a solution stays on track or for other solution management reasons.

Recommendations relate to issues where additional information or clarification could improve the quality of future submissions.

The letter states:

“Where we have identified issues requiring urgent remediation, we expect the solution owners to resolve them to a suitable quality no later than the dates provided in Appendix A of the final decision document.”

Click here to download the final decision document