Anglian Water embarks on £11billion package of improvements to help reduce spills

The authority, which manages waterways in Peterborough, was one of six in the country to be punished for poor performance by the government, which saw their chief executive- Mark Thurston- denied his bonus.

The move came as a result of the government’s move to hold water company executives directly accountable for environmental failures.

Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes welcomed the move by stating: “Today’s news is the next step in making water companies accountable. The era of profiteering off the back of poor behaviour is coming to an end.

“Anglian Water is not the worst water company, but it is responsible for serious pollution incidents in our region.”

The authority is now embarking on a five-year business plan to improve performance. This contains a £1 billion investment specifically into tackling sewage spills.

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “Our next five-year business plan builds at pace on the work we’ve already started. It contains our largest ever investment – £1bn – into tackling storm spills, and £11bn overall to improve our performance. We’ve prioritised this work to deliver the biggest benefits first, because we recognise and share the desire of customers to get on with addressing this issue.”

The investment includes:

- An extra 200 pairs of boots on the ground over the next 12 months, all belonging to people dedicated to improving performance on spills and pollutions.

- Fast tracking work over the next two years to create seven times as much rainwater storage into the water recycling network compared to the previous five years – a total of around 470,000m3 – or the equivalent to nearly six million baths

- Investing £96 million to ‘slow the flow’ to prevent rain and groundwater from getting into our pipes to begin with, making spills less likely

- Improving monitoring – by the end of next year there are plans for almost 50,000 state-of-the-art AI sewer monitors installed across the network. These can predict and prevent issues like blockages before they cause an issue. So far these have prevented over 2,500 blockages in targeted areas