{"id":5690,"date":"2025-05-30T07:46:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T07:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/?p=5690"},"modified":"2025-05-30T07:46:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T07:46:44","slug":"government-seizes-control-to-fast-track-5bn-reservoir-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/government-seizes-control-to-fast-track-5bn-reservoir-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Government seizes control to fast-track \u00a35bn reservoir plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government has seized control of planning to fast-track two major reservoir schemes in eastern England.<\/p>\n

Environment Secretary Steve Reed has declared the \u00a35bn Lincolnshire and Fens Reservoir Programme ‘nationally significant’, giving ministers powers to override local planning delays and speed up delivery.<\/p>\n

The move marks the first major intervention in UK reservoir construction since the 1990s and is designed to avert future water shortages while unblocking new housing in water-stressed areas.<\/p>\n

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Anglian Water and Cambridge Water are behind the schemes, which together will supply 253 million litres of water daily \u2013 enough for 750,000 homes.<\/p>\n

The developments are also seen as critical to freeing up thousands of currently stalled housing plots in Cambridge and North Sussex.<\/p>\n

The \u00a35bn programme is expected to go out to tender in January 2027.<\/p>\n

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The Lincolnshire Reservoir, south of Sleaford, is planned to go live by 2040 with a daily output of 166 million litres. The Fens Reservoir, between Chatteris and March, will provide 87 million litres from 2036.<\/p>\n

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Fens Reservoir<\/h3>\n
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Distinctive \u2018ammonite\u2019 shape of the emerging Fens design<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Construction to start between 2029-2031 to come into service in 2036.<\/p>\n

The proposed scheme will be located 30 miles north of Cambridge between Chatteris and March.<\/p>\n

At its greatest dimensions, it will be 2.6km wide and 2.4km long to the embankment toe.<\/p>\n

Lincolnshire Reservoir<\/h3>\n
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Construction to start between 2029-2031 for 2039 delivery<\/p>\n

The proposed LR scheme location is 30 miles south of Lincoln. The reservoir will be 2.6km wide and 3.2km long to the embankment toe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The reservoirs are the first in a wider national rollout of nine new schemes by 2050, with government pledging to legislate so any future schemes of this scale automatically qualify for fast-track planning.<\/p>\n

Water Minister Emma Hardy said: \u201cWe are backing the builders, not the blockers. This intervention is in the national interest and will secure water supplies for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ofwat chief executive David Black said the regulator was already backing the programme with \u00a32bn of development funding approved in its 2024 Price Review.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Proposed reservoirs by operational start year<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Reservoir<\/th>\nWater company<\/th>\nDaily supply (Ml\/d)<\/th>\nCompletion<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Broad Oak<\/td>\nSouth East Water<\/td>\n12.6<\/td>\n2033<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cheddar 2<\/td>\nSouth West Water<\/td>\n13<\/td>\n2035<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fens<\/td>\nAnglian Water, Cambridge Water<\/td>\n87<\/td>\n2036<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South East Strategic Resource Option<\/td>\nThames Water, Affinity Water, Southern Water<\/td>\n293<\/td>\n2039<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South Lincs<\/td>\nAnglian Water<\/td>\n166.5<\/td>\n2040<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North Suffolk<\/td>\nEssex and Suffolk Water<\/td>\n19.9<\/td>\n2040<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
West Midlands<\/td>\nSevern Trent Water<\/td>\n32.5<\/td>\n2040<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mendips Quarry<\/td>\nSouth West Water<\/td>\n46<\/td>\n2042<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
River Adur offline reservoir<\/td>\nSouthern Water<\/td>\n19.5<\/td>\n2045<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*Work is already underway on Portsmouth Water\u2019s Havant Thicket reservoir<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency has warned of an increasing risk of drought this summer following the driest start to spring in nearly 70 years. No new reservoir has been built in England since 1992.<\/p>\n

from Construction Enquirer https:\/\/ift.tt\/U4VJCoK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has seized control of planning to fast-track two major reservoir schemes in eastern England. Environment Secretary Steve Reed has declared the \u00a35bn Lincolnshire and Fens Reservoir Programme ‘nationally significant’, giving ministers powers to override local planning delays and speed up delivery. The move marks the first major intervention in UK reservoir construction since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-5690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-construction-enquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5691,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690\/revisions\/5691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}