Water companies plan major overhaul of infrastructure

13 August 2008

England’s water companies are asking the regulator to approve multibillion-pound plans to accelerate the replacement of ageing water mains, and for targeted investment in sewer systems to reduce flood risk.

Thames Water claimed that its £6.5bn business plan for 2010-2015 represented ‘the largest-ever programme of investment undertaken by a UK water company,’ and included acceleration of its Victorian mains replacement programme.

The company is proposing the £911M replacement of 2,500km of water mains pipes over five years, a big stepping-up of the programme – it has replaced only 1,300km since 2002. Despite being cited by Transport for London as one of the main contributors to a sharp increase in traffic delays within the capital’s congestion charge zone last week, Thames Water has, to date, only replaced 5% of its water mains in total, compared with an industry average of 16%.

David Owens, Thames Water’s chief executive officer, said that ‘even at the [increased] rate of progress, it will take until 2035 before almost all the capital’s 10,000 miles of water mains have been replaced’. Southern Water, meanwhile, wants to step up its current replacement rate of 30km a year – ‘implying an average life of 450 years’ – to 70km under a £76M pipe-replacement plan.

Thames Water is also proposing to spend £302M on capital works to upgrade sewer systems, which, it said, were at increasing risk of being overwhelmed by intense rainfall. This included £30M specifically for ‘integrated urban drainage and drainage area plans’.

Severn Trent is suggesting £10M pilots of a new approach to prevent the overwhelming of its sewer system by introducing measures to separate foul and surface water, thereby providing additional capacity for sewerage.

‘We will look at the benefits of applying integrated urban drainage in future,’ it says, according to its draft business plan for 2010-2015. Yorkshire Water, meanwhile, has drawn up plans to establish future investment requirements in the sewer system serving Hull and the adjoining areas of East Riding, following last summer’s flooding.

Some of the draft plans – such as Thames Water’s and Southern’s – involve annual price increases for customers exceeding the rate of inflation. Ofwat is expected to give feedback on the plans, later this year.

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