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Thames Water’s plans to build a privately financed £2.2bn reservoir in Oxfordshire will be challenged by campaigners in the High Court on Wednesday in a landmark case that could upend the company’s drought management plans.
The new reservoir — which would cover an area the size of Gatwick airport — was last week designated as a “nationally significant” infrastructure project, meaning it will be considered by the government, not the local planning authority.
Groups including the Campaign to Protect Rural England and anti-reservoir activists SaferWaters are seeking to overturn the decision by Steve Reed, secretary of state for environment, to approve plans for it to apply for a development consent order next year, and are calling for a public inquiry.
Thames Water says the planned Abingdon reservoir would secure water supplies for 15mn people across southern England, including Affinity Water and Southern Water customers. Without it the utility said it would “face a 1bn litre shortfall per day for our customers by 2050”. The company has also been told to reduce river and groundwater abstraction, adding to the pressure on water resources, while the population is expected to grow.
But the campaigners, which are advised by former water engineers, argue that the “South East Strategic Resource Option” is expensive, unnecessary and risks hurting biodiversity and exacerbating local flooding.
Instead they say Thames Water should fix its leaky pipes, which lose about 20 per cent of treated water. It should also build cheaper transfer pipes that bring water from wetter areas in the north-west, and introduce sustainable drainage and grey water systems that cut the amount of treated water used, for example on gardens.
Derek Stork, a director of SaferWaters and a former director of technology at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, said water companies were incentivised to build large infrastructure rather than introducing smaller conservation schemes because it “boosts their balance sheets and shareholder value”.
“This is a scandalous misuse of the public’s money,” he said. “Instead of investing in essential sewage clean-up and modern water reuse systems, Thames Water wants to build an untested reservoir . . . that puts communities at risk while lining shareholder pockets.”
Lisa Warne, director of CPRE Oxfordshire, said: “The government should prioritise leakage reduction, water reuse, and efficiency, not this vanity reservoir.”
According to the Environment Agency such measures would reduce water demand by about 15 per cent over the next 25 years.
The reservoir is part of a wider £50bn plan from regulator Ofwat to deliver 30 new projects to improve Britain’s crumbling water infrastructure over the next 15 years, many of which will be financed through separate private finance vehicles.
The Abingdon project would have its own corporate structure, management team and investors. It is modelled on the Thames Tideway sewage tunnel which is paid for through an additional surcharge — currently £26 a year — on Thames Water customers’ bills.
Thames Water said it was a “proven competitive financing and delivery model” and would deliver “value for money”.
The company is currently struggling under the weight of its £20bn debt. Its creditors have offered a £5bn rescue plan but the UK government has signalled it will reject their demands for exemptions from environmental laws, raising the likelihood that Thames Water will be renationalised.
It opened a desalination plant in Beckton, east London, in 2010 but the £250mn facility, which can turn seawater into drinking water, has rarely been switched on. It cannot be used this year because of maintenance issues, even as the company urges customers to conserve water during the recent heatwave. The company said on Sunday its reservoir levels “remain average” for this time of year and were 94 per cent full.
Defra said it “can’t comment on ongoing legal matters”.
“Without action some parts of the country could run out of water by 2030 and that’s why £104bn is being invested to improve water infrastructure, including nine new reservoirs.”
