The government has formally published the Plan for Water with its integrated plan for delivering clean and plentiful water. It covers both the cleanliness of the water environment and how much water resource we have.

There have been improvements over recent years with 93% of bathing waters being rated as good or excellent, up from 76% in 2010. This government is also the first to comprehensively monitoring storm overflows – from 10% in 2015 to 100% by the end of 2023 – and to introduce new targets on water companies to increase investment and tighten legal permits on storm overflows.

Hornchurch and Upminster MP, Julia Lopez, has welcomed the plan which tackles every source of pollution, including from storm overflows, agriculture, plastics, road run-off and chemicals. It also focuses on pressures on the UK’s water resources because of hotter, drier summers and population growth.

Tackling the challenges around water quality and resources requires effort across the whole of society, including businesses, regulators, government and households. This will not be fixed overnight, but today’s plan sets out a clear way forward for cleaner, plentiful water and to deliver the improvements people want to see. Most importantly, the plan confirms £1.6 billion of new, accelerated investment by water companies, which will be spent on new infrastructure to tackle pollution and increase the UK’s water resilience. This figure includes £1.1 billion on improvements to storm overflows to cut 10,000 sewage discharges.

This plan builds on the goals and targets set in the Environmental Improvement Plan in January 2023. Please find a Dear Colleague from the Environment Secretary, Therese Coffey, and Environment Minister, Rebecca Pow, attached at the bottom of this webpage where you can view the full details of the plan.