The updated roadmap for the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) plan for long-term WINEP improvement has now been published.

In 2020, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Ofwat led a review of the water industry national environment programme (WINEP) ahead of the next price review (PR24).

Following consultation in July last year, the WINEP roadmap has now been updated to reflect the consultation responses.

The consultation document also set out a longer-term roadmap for developing the WINEP including actions: 

• for the next price review in 2024
• to consider in future price reviews (2029 and beyond)

The WINEP roadmap sets out actions for the next price review in 2024 and to consider in future price reviews (2029 and beyond).

The actions for PR24 are as follows:

• the WINEP methodology will set out the tiered approach government and regulators expect to be used by PR24
• the WINEP will clearly link all proposed tier 3 outputs and tier 2 goals to tier 1 outcomes
• regulators will set delivery requirements at an outcome level rather than at an output level, as appropriate to make sure the environmental actions that water companies propose consider the long term
• companies should plan to a 25-year time horizon to enable options with a longer lead-in time to be included in future programmes of work
• 5 years of clear actions that align with the next price review period (financial years 2025 to 2030)
• there will be a set of ‘indicative’ actions for the following 5 years (financial years 2030 to 2035)
• any actions that are working towards the environmental outcomes identified within longer-term plans (up to 25 years) where there is sufficient evidence to support them
• the guidance for options development and for options assessment will specify how water companies should produce a high quality, evidence based WINEP programme of best value options – allowing water companies to meet their regulatory obligations and customers’ needs, whilst restoring and increasing natural assets to realise environmental net gains

For PR24, the water companies will also be expected to clearly establish dependencies between the WINEP and other statutory planning frameworks. Government and regulators will use the WINEP methodology to show how the WINEP can achieve outcomes from other statutory planning frameworks.

The water companies will be required to work at a catchment level and draw together the long-term goals from other statutory planning frameworks to understand catchment objectives for the next 25 years. This will inform their WINEP proposals and business plans.

They will also need to include actions from other planning frameworks in the WINEP where appropriate to make sure they align with PR24’s long term strategies and adaptive planning approach.

With regard to action for future WINEPs, Government and regulators will review the policy and change the regulatory framework to further enable a more outcomes-based approach.

Click here to access the WINEP policy paper online