Publications
Water Resources West’s publications
Regional Plan Statement of Response
During our consultation on the Draft Regional Plan, we received responses from a variety of stakeholders. We have now published a Statement of Response, setting out the feedback received, the consideration we have given it and how our plan has changed as a result.
The documentation can be found below:
A Thirst for Collaboration - a survey of non-Public Water Supply abstractors, November 2023
Water Resources West (WRW) today released the results of a new survey to understand the water resources issues faced by businesses with water abstraction licences. This is the first ever survey of its kind and highlights some real issues, but also a desire from abstractors to work together locally to improve water resources.
Regional Planning for the future
There are now five regional planning groups across England and parts of Wales and their recent work represents a huge step forwards in long term water resources planning. It’s meant a much more integrated approach, which has seen national and regional needs reflected in each company’s Water Resources Management Plan.
We all need to think about the future of the regional groups now - where do we think WRW should position itself for the next five year period? There are expectations that we can do more, and plenty of opportunity to do so. In this paper we consider many different dimensions in which the regional groups remit could evolve and seize opportunities to add more value in the future.
Inter-regional reconciliation report, Spring 2023
A further inter-regional reconciliation of the five regional plans took place between March and May 2023. The goal of this was to agree an updated alignment of strategic transfer options (predominantly SROs) between regional planning groups for the Statements of Response for Regional Plans, and for revised draft Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs) which are being published this summer. The process followed consultation on the draft plans and sought to review and re-align the selection of transfer options between the plans. This document presents a summary of the reconciliation process and the positions that were reached as a result, as well as key alternative options and pathways, and reports the rationale or justification for that position for the updated regional plans and WRMPs.
Our Draft Regional Plan, November 2022
Our Draft Regional Plan is open for consultation between 14 November 2022 and 20 February 2023. This draft plan presents an updated assessment of the region’s water needs, reflecting growth, climate change and our environmental destination. It sets out which options are being proposed as solutions to meet the regions water needs, as well as information on the water transfers schemes that have been selected to supply water from the North West to the South East. The focus of this public consultation is to seek views on the plan as a whole, including the options selected in the Draft Regional Plan. We will take these views into account when producing the Final Regional Plan, which will be published in autumn 2023. Links to the documents are below:
Summary of regional plans report, November 2022
Across the UK there are five regional planning groups; Water Resources West, Water Resources North, Water Resources East, Water Resources South East and West Country Water Resources Group. Just as Water Resources West has done, each group has worked to produce a regional water resources plan. This document presents a high level summary of the draft regional plans, including the methods of developing the plans, the needs and challenges faced by the regions and the solutions to these. The link to the document is below:
Inter-regional reconciliation report, Spring 2022
An inter-regional reconciliation of the five regional plans took place between April and May 2022. The goal of this was to agree alignment of strategic transfer options (predominantly SROs) between regional planning groups in the core submission and data tables for the subsequent draft Regional Plans and Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). This document presents a summary of the reconciliation process and the positions that were reached as a result, as well as key alternative options and pathways relevant to consultation and presentation in the draft plans and several ongoing residual actions, recommendations and flagged key risks for the planning process as a whole beyond reconciliation.
Inter-regional reconciliation report
Methodologies
Our work is framed by robust methodologies for each workstream, which were first shared with regulators in April 2020. Subsequently, these method statements were updated based on regulatory feedback. The methodologies have been approved by our multi-sector senior management group. We also sought an external expert review of our methodologies. This provided additional assurance that the approaches are appropriate for implementation.
All our methodologies and supplementary technical notes can be found here.
WRW Problem Characterisation Report
Emerging Regional Plan: Consultation Workshops Report
During January and February we hosted a series of virtual workshops in the North West, Midlands and Wales, that formed part of the programme of consultation on our Emerging Regional Plan. The workshop were designed to seek feedback from stakeholders on a range of topics, through discussion and interactive voting.
Our Emerging Regional Plan, January 2022
Our Emerging Regional Plan is open for consultation between 17 January and 28 February 2022. This emerging plan presents an updated assessment of the region’s water needs, reflecting growth, climate change and our environmental destination. It indicates options that are emerging as candidates to meet those needs and explores the role that transfers might play in supporting national resilience. The focus of this public consultation is to seek views on strategic questions aimed at shaping the development of a more detailed plan, which will be published in autumn 2022. Links to the douments are below:
Emerging Regional Plan - Executive Summary
Crynodeb Gweithredol o’r cynllun Rhanbarthol sy’n Datblygu (fersiwn Gymraeg)
Emerging Regional Plan for consultation (main report)
Appendix A: Regional Plan Expectations Checklist
Appendix B: Options and Screening Process
Appendix C: Strategic Resource Options and Transfers
Appendix D: Environmental Destination
Appendix E: Supply-Demand Balance Table Commentary & Forecast Assumptions
Appendix F: Regional Plan Customer Research
Appendix G: Stakeholder Engagement Report
Appendix H: Supporting Data Tables
Feedback on this emerging plan for consultation can be sent to waterresourceswest@outlook.com. We are also using IdeaStream to gather views on the plan
Our start to regional planning, September 2021
We’ve written this short, easy to read summary document to update people on our progress in planning our future water needs. We have started to build a common understanding of those needs. Now we are working with similar groups in other parts of the country, as other regions face similar challenges. Together we are reviewing our challenges and joining up our plans. Once we understand what is needed nationally, we can decide what to do locally.
Report on our consultation and engagement work, July 2021
Adapting to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we officially launched Water Resources West through an engaging and interactive virtual event in October 2020. Our subsequent consultation and engagement work has built on this digital approach utilising a series of virtual tools to involve a mixed geographical cross-section of stakeholders. We are delighted with the progress of our engagement to date and excited to take this collaboration forward. This document outlines our approach so far, including the platforms and tools have utilised to successfully bring together a diverse mix of sectors and interest groups as well as mapping out the next steps in our story.
Update on our Resource Position, February 2021
In the months since our Initial Resource Position was published in March 2020 we have made significant progress in our work to develop the region’s water resources plan. This document provides an update on our resource position in light of the progress to February 2021.
Initial Resource Position, March 2020
In March 2020 we published our Initial Resource Position document, which sets out a preliminary view of the region’s water needs and our ambitions. Along with your feedback this will be used to shape further development of the region’s plan and will be useful for those who may wish to propose options to meet the water needs. A set of tables setting more detailed information accompany this document. These relate to public water supply only and are based on the 2019 water resources management plans of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Severn Trent Water, South Staffs Water and United Utilities Water. These tables also include options that have been identified so far our additional water needs. The tables can be found here: for water resources plan 2019 and for a 1 in 500 year drought resilience standard.
Evidence for local authorities regarding the optional requirement for water efficiency
As a region, we will be ambitious in our demand management plans. Water companies are working hard to mitigate the effects of a growing population on water demand by encouraging water efficiency and reducing leakage. Planning policy is another vital way of helping to ensure long term sustainable management of water supplies, as well as helping protect our local rivers and wildlife. Therefore we have prepared an evidence paper to support local authorities in North West England and the Midlands to adopt the Buildings Regulations Operational Requirement for Water Efficiency.
Our members’ publications
NFU’s Integrated Water Management Strategy, January 2021
The NFU recognises that the development of regional water planning is an important step forward. It should create opportunities to promote multi-sector schemes where farmers, water companies, energy companies and others can share the benefits of new and improved facilities. It has prepared a strategy document which describes an NFU vision for agriculture’s role in the sustainable use of water. The strategy puts forwards a central role farmers and growers in the better management of land to improve water quality and the better management of water to tackle the dual challenges of floods and droughts – while enabling them to keep feeding the nation.
National Framework for Water Resources, March 2020
The Environment Agency has led the development of a national water resources framework. The report identifies the strategic long-term water needs of England for all sectors that depend on a secure supply of water. Defra’s work on Understanding future water demand outside of the water industry has fed into the water resources national framework.
Water Resources Management Plans, 2019
WRW’s four core water company members have recently published WRMPs for 2019. Defra and Welsh Government have given companies the go-ahead to publish these robust plans based on the best available data and their policy expectations: