Our plans for water: new consultation opens today 

Today marks the launch of our draft business plan for 2010 to 2015, and the publication of a summary of our proposals: ‘Our plans for water - what will you get and how much will it cost?’

What will you get?

We plan to:·    

v    Continue our Victorian Mains Replacement project to greatly reduce leakage

v    Introduce a programme of metering in areas where water supplies are under greatest pressure
  

v     Provide more advice and assistance to help customers use water wisely

v       Develop plans for and, if approved, start work to construct a new reservoir to safeguard water supplies

v     Greatly reduce sewage overflows into the Rivers Thames and Lee

v    Make sure our sewers and sewage works can serve our growing population

v    Greatly reduce the number of our customers’ homes threatened by sewer flooding

v    Improve 250km of rivers to meet new water quality standards

v    Cut our carbon emissions by 20%, and implement projects needed to meet the requirements of legislation

v    Provide more financial assistance to customers who have difficulty paying their bills to ensure our services are affordable

What will it cost?

Our  £6.5bn investment programme will lead to an average annual increase in our bills for water and wastewater services of 3%.  The total increase from 2010 to 2015 will be 16.2%.  This is an increase in real terms from £283 to £329.*

Let us know your views

Our proposals have  been  informed  by  our  biggest  ever  programme  of consultation,  and  I  am  confident  that we have put our customers at the heart  of  our  plans.   We are launching a 12-week online consultation to continue this dialogue, and I hope you will take this opportunity to let us
know your views.We  will  use  the results of the consultation to modify our plan before we submit  the  final  version  to  our  regulator Ofwat in April 2009.  Their review of our proposals will set price limits for 2010 to 2015.We look forward to receiving your comments.

Peter Antolik
Regulation and Strategy Director

v    Bill impacts are quoted at average 2007-2008 price levels.

 Please  click  http://www.thameswaterconsult.co.uk/  to  register  for  our consultation   or http://www.thameswater.co.uk/fiveyearplan  to  view  our
plans.