Our Purpose is to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region we serve through our commitment to Love Every Drop.

 

Water is vital to health and wellbeing, to the economic prosperity of the East of England, and to maintaining a thriving natural environment that we can all enjoy. Yet we face growing challenges from population growth through to the dual impacts of climate change; flooding and drought. To respond to these challenges, we all have to play our part in balancing the needs of society, business and the environment to enable a sustainable future. 

 

At Anglian Water we have always recognised the special responsibility we hold as a monopoly provider of an essential public service. We have a duty to deliver wider benefits to society, above and beyond the provision of fresh, clean water. 

 

That responsibility is woven throughout our long-term Strategic Direction Statement and our five-year Business Plan, which are shaped around the need to facilitate growth in our region, unlock opportunities for our customers and stakeholders, safeguard our environment and provide a resilient supply for generations to come.

 

Enshrining our Purpose

 

Our commitment to the environmental and social prosperity of our region goes back many years. We first considered climate change in our assessment of water resources back in 1993 and launched our community education programme in 2006. In 2019, with our shareholders’ support, we became the first water company to change our company constitution – the Articles of Association – to lock public interest into the way we run our business, both now and for future generations.

 

Our enhanced Articles of Association require Anglian Water to conduct its business and operations for the benefit of shareholders while delivering long-term value for the company’s customers, the region and the communities it serves, seeking positive outcomes for the environment and society. 

 

Put simply, this means that our Board must take account of the wider impact Anglian Water has on our customers, communities and the environment, as well as delivering a fair return for our shareholders. We believe our Articles will continue to attract responsible long-term investors who share our values. 

 

Our Articles of Association means our Board will:  

  • Adopt a statement of responsible business principles.
  • Invite a reputable independent body to scrutinise our policies and performance against these principles.
  • Demonstrate in our Annual Integrated Report how we have run the company in accordance with our purpose and the responsible business principles.
  • We invite challenge from others, strengthening engagement with our Independent Customer Board, by inviting them to talk directly to our Management Board.  
  • We will enhance our relationships with regional and national stakeholders, giving them the opportunity to influence our business decisions.
  • We will continue to engage our employees through formal and informal channels to help shape our organisation. 

 

Embedding purpose throughout Anglian Water

 

When we embedded our Purpose into our Articles of Association in 2019, we committed to assessing ourselves against a set of responsible business principles, including Business in the Community’s (BITC) Responsible Business Tracker®. The Tracker assesses our work against principles, underpinned by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We use the feedback from the Tracker to agree future areas of focus. Find out more about our performance in our Annual Integrated Report. 


In 2022, along with the British Standards Institution (BSI), we led the development of a new Publicly Available Specification for embedding purpose in organisations, PAS 808:2022 Purpose-Driven Organisations, Worldviews, Principles and Behaviours. PAS 808 has been sponsored by the UK Government.  


In 2023, we were the first company to be assessed against PAS 808, which explored the extent to which the worldviews, principles and behaviours on purpose are embedded in the organisation. In March 2025, a follow-up assessment demonstrated that we have maintained our purpose-driven focus, with continued evidence of Anglian Water’s ongoing commitment to purpose, not just within the company but also helping to drive purpose-driven attitudes amongst the wider business community.  


We are contributing to the technical committee for developing PAS808 into an ISO standard.  

 

Welcoming scrutiny

 

We have an opportunity to have a positive impact on the environment and the communities we serve. And our millions of customers have a key role to play in achieving that positive outcome. Customers want to see progress in their local area, understand how we are making a difference to their community, and be equipped with the knowledge and tools to make positive changes themselves. 


We regularly communicate with our customers and key stakeholders, to ensure we are delivering against their expectations. Anglian Water’s Independent Challenge Group (ICG) is a group of independent experts and regulators, with an independent Chair, Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts.  


In 2022, we re-established our Customer Board, where we facilitate an open, two-way discussion between customers and our Executive Committee. At this forum, customers are invited to hold us to account and provide challenge at a senior leadership level. 


To further facilitate transparency, in July 2025, we launched our newly created Purpose Impact Assessment. We have been working to better understand the positive and negative impacts we have on the environmental and social prosperity of the region; impacts derived through our day-to-day operations and multi-billion investment programme.  We plan to update and share the overview annually. Read more here.   

 

Embedding six capitals into our decisions

 

Our Board is committed to using the Six Capitals framework for decision making: an approach we first introduced back in 2015. This framework, which is embedded in our business model, helps us balance the six to shape investment decisions.  


Using six capitals thinking helps us to keep our responsibility to customers, communities and the environment at the front of our minds when making business decisions. We have developed definitions and a set of metrics for each of the capitals to help us understand, track and report on our impact on them. 


They are underpinned by our values; together we, do the right thing, build trust and are always exploring. 

 

Six Capitals

 

Natural

The health of the natural systems and resources that we rely on and impact in our region and beyond; the availability and quality of water in our rivers and aquifers, the protection of our soil and biodiversity and our impact on carbon emissions.

 

Social

The value of our relationships with stakeholders, including customers, communities and other organisations, the impacts we have on people and society (both positive and negative) and the trust they place in us as a result.

 

Financial

The financial health and resilience of the organisation and our access to and use of sustainable finance.

 

Manufactured

The ability of our infrastructure to provide resilient services to meet the current and future expectations of our customers.

 

People

The knowledge, skills and wellbeing of our people; and the health, happiness and safety of our working environment; our organisational culture and our ways of working.

 

Intellectual

The knowledge, systems, processes, data and information we hold, create and share within our business and with our alliance partners.

 

Our environmental, social and corporate governance

 

We believe it’s important to demonstrate through reporting how we put our social and environmental Purpose into action.  Read more, and find links to relevant reports.