Consenting process and next steps
This reservoir is recognised as being a strategic regional asset, The volume of water it can hold means it is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) and is treated separately from local authority planning processes.
The government agency responsible for examining NSIPs is the Planning Inspectorate. We will work with them as we prepare our application and submit it for acceptance. Once accepted by the Planning Inspectorate, a panel of inspectors will be appointed who will then examine the application before making a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as to whether the project should be granted development consent. It is the Secretary of State that makes the final decision.
Our application for development consent will include the area of land we would require, either permanently or temporarily, to build the project. We’ll continue to refine and consult on our proposed project boundary before submitting the application. Ultimately, this will include the land needed for the reservoir and its associated water infrastructure, and wider areas of land required for construction, environmental mitigation and enhancement, and other enabling works needed to build the reservoir. Supporting information will also form part of our application, including our assessments of any impacts and plans for mitigating them.
Local people and stakeholders have an important role to play to help inform how the project is developed and designed. During this pre-application phase, we will be gathering your feedback to help shape our proposals before we submit the application to the Planning Inspectorate.
Our summer 2024 consultation was the second phase in a multi-phase consultation approach – at least one more consultation will follow.
Our updated timeline
Both of our new reservoirs in Lincolnshire and in the Cambridgeshire Fens are a key part of our latest Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) which sets out when each reservoir is needed. Our latest WRMP has just been approved by the government and published on our website.
To ensure we deliver that plan, while also managing impacts on customer bills over the next five to 10 years through our AMP8 and AMP9 periods, we have reviewed some of the timings for the reservoir in Lincolnshire.
Our target for the reservoir to be in supply by 2039 at the earliest remains the same, but the pre-application phase will now be extended by approximately two years. We’re currently planning for future consultations to take place between 2026 and 2027, with our application for development consent planned for submission in Autumn 2028.
Our revised programme for the Lincolnshire Reservoir is subject to the final determination of our five-year business plan by our economic regulator, Ofwat. This is planned for December 2024.
The Lincolnshire Reservoir is a wide ranging and complex major project. Extending the pre- application programme will give us more time to meaningfully engage with all interested parties and stakeholders who could be impacted by the project.
This will ensure we develop the project in a way that best reflects your feedback and seeks to mitigate impacts, while also spreading out our investment costs to our customers.
Work is not stopping on the Lincolnshire Reservoir, with surveys set to continue from spring 2025 to gather important information about the area and help us further manage potential impacts and develop our design.
To keep up to date with the project, you can subscribe to our e-newsletter here.
You can see where you will have the chance to comment on our proposals on this timeline
