Anglian Water has called for greater emphasis on long-term investment to tackle climate change within the next price review in 2024.
The company, which is currently awaiting the initial response from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on its appeal against Ofwat’s final determination for its PR19 business plan, suggested enhancement investment should be considered on a 25-year basis not a five-year basis.
Within its appeal to the CMA Anglian said greater investment is needed now to address the growing pressures of climate change on water resources.
It has now unveiled a five-point green recovery plan that addresses pressures of climate changes as well as the societal and economic impacts of coronavirus.
Chief executive Peter Simpson said sustainability and resilience should always be at the forefront of planning.
“Sustainable solutions don’t need to be expensive ones. We’ve proved that at Anglian Water, where our ‘reduce carbon, reduce cost’ approach has delivered financial savings averaging 20 per cent versus traditional solutions,” he said. “And where there is a need to invest for the long term, as we are doing through our ambitious strategic pipeline programme, we – and, crucially, our customers – recognise that acting now, rather than kicking the can down the road, makes sound financial sense.”
Within the plan, the company committed to make water and resilience a core consideration in regional growth and development plans including making new developments water neutral.
As well including water reuse and recycling on development sites the company also called for joint water and energy efficiency measures to be included in retrofit schemes such as the Green Homes Grant.
The plan details how the company will reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 including sourcing 44 per cent of its energy requirements from on-site renewable sources by 2025 by using solar energy with energy storage at more than 100 of its sites. This, Anglian said, will be the UK’s biggest subsidy-free solar and storage network.
To date, its accomplishments include generating 131GWh of renewable energy in 2019/20 and reduced capital carbon by 61 per cent this year from a 2010 baseline.
Its ambition to make the east of England resilient to the risks of drought and flooding include removing the automatic right for developers to connect surface water drainage to public sewers and encourage the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDs) instead.
To realise these ambitions the company is creating 50 apprenticeship roles and jobs to support the green recovery.