Ofwat has today (29 July) announced a proposed £62.8m redress package for Anglian Water, which will fund a range of environmental and community initiatives across the East of England.

The package has been proposed by Anglian Water in response to Ofwat’s industry-wide investigation into wastewater treatment works and networks and will be entirely funded by Anglian Water’s shareholders rather than customers.

The £62.8m package includes:

• • • £5.8m to create an entirely new Community Fund which will support local environmental and social causes, in line with Anglian Water’s purpose to bring social and environmental prosperity to the region. The Community Fund will be ringfenced for causes within the Anglian region. Local communities and organisations will be able to apply for grant awards to help both large and smaller projects, and benefit as many causes as possible. Priority will be given to environmental causes, and those near Anglian Water’s storm overflows and capital investment works.

• • • £57m to tackle more complex issues within at least 8 high priority catchments, as well as addressing more specific place-based challenges.  This will include installing sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS) to combat drainage and flooding issues, upgrading community-owned assets that contribute to flooding, and other local initiatives.

In addition, the Company will accelerate planned investment to reduce spills at high-risk sites with new storage, removing surface water and misconnections and optimising the existing network. You can read more about how we’ve trialled this in Yaxley, Peterborough here. 

The company has also agreed to develop and implement a longer term action plan that will ensure spills from storm overflows are minimised and assets are compliant with legal requirements.

All of this is in addition to the business plan worth £11 billion that Anglian Water will deliver over the next five years, £1bn of which is dedicated to driving storm overflows to low levels, and £1.7bn of which will improve maintenance and performance of our water recycling systems.

The scale of the redress package is chiefly reflective of Anglian Water’s turnover rather than an indicator of severity of issues and seeks to achieve a better outcome for customers and the environment.

Mark Thurston, CEO for Anglian Water, commented: “We understand the need to rebuild trust with customers and that aspects of our performance need to improve to do that. Reducing pollutions and spills is our number one operational focus, and we have both the investment and the partners in place to deliver on those promises as part of our £11bn business plan over the next five years. In the meantime, we have proposed this redress package, recognising the need to invest in the communities and environments most impacted.

“It will take time and investment to achieve a significant reduction in spills, but we are making good progress. By 2030 we have allocated a dedicated £1bn for measures such as storm tanks, upgraded monitoring, nature-based solutions like wetlands, and sustainable drainage solutions to halve the number of spills.

“Equally, it will take time to upgrade the vast network of assets we manage; we have hundreds of treatment works, more than 100,000 kilometres of pipes and sewers underground, many hundreds of water storage points and storm tanks – all of these need to be part of a significant capital programme to maintain and renew what is there. This is what will be set out in our plans - to ensure we can make the improvements that are best for the environment and delivers on our promises to customers.”

Vivenne Atkinson, Head of Operations and Development at Cambridge Community Foundation, said: “The launch of Anglian Water’s Community Fund marks a powerful commitment to people and places across their customer region. This is more than just funding— it’s an investment in brighter futures, stronger communities, and thriving environments. Together, we’ll support projects that truly matter—initiatives that build community resilience and make a positive difference to places and lives. We’re proud to support our long-standing partner, Anglian Water, in delivering this fund and are deeply committed to ensuring every grant creates meaningful, lasting impact where it’s needed most."

The enforcement package will now be subject to consultation which will be open for the public and key stakeholders to offer any final comments before Ofwat’s final decision.