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Environment Secretary Steve Reed has declared the £5bn Lincolnshire and Fens Reservoir Programme ‘nationally significant’, giving ministers powers to override local planning delays and speed up delivery.
The move marks the first major intervention in UK reservoir construction since the 1990s and is designed to avert future water shortages while unblocking new housing in water-stressed areas.
Anglian Water and Cambridge Water are behind the schemes, which together will supply 253 million litres of water daily – enough for 750,000 homes.
The developments are also seen as critical to freeing up thousands of currently stalled housing plots in Cambridge and North Sussex.
The £5bn programme is expected to go out to tender in January 2027.
The Lincolnshire Reservoir, south of Sleaford, is planned to go live by 2040 with a daily output of 166 million litres. The Fens Reservoir, between Chatteris and March, will provide 87 million litres from 2036.
Fens Reservoir
Distinctive ‘ammonite’ shape of the emerging Fens design
Construction to start between 2029-2031 to come into service in 2036.
The proposed scheme will be located 30 miles north of Cambridge between Chatteris and March.
At its greatest dimensions, it will be 2.6km wide and 2.4km long to the embankment toe.
Lincolnshire Reservoir
Construction to start between 2029-2031 for 2039 delivery
The proposed LR scheme location is 30 miles south of Lincoln. The reservoir will be 2.6km wide and 3.2km long to the embankment toe.
The reservoirs are the first in a wider national rollout of nine new schemes by 2050, with government pledging to legislate so any future schemes of this scale automatically qualify for fast-track planning.
Water Minister Emma Hardy said: “We are backing the builders, not the blockers. This intervention is in the national interest and will secure water supplies for future generations.”
Ofwat chief executive David Black said the regulator was already backing the programme with £2bn of development funding approved in its 2024 Price Review.
| Proposed reservoirs by operational start year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Reservoir | Water company | Daily supply (Ml/d) | Completion |
| Broad Oak | South East Water | 12.6 | 2033 |
| Cheddar 2 | South West Water | 13 | 2035 |
| Fens | Anglian Water, Cambridge Water | 87 | 2036 |
| South East Strategic Resource Option | Thames Water, Affinity Water, Southern Water | 293 | 2039 |
| South Lincs | Anglian Water | 166.5 | 2040 |
| North Suffolk | Essex and Suffolk Water | 19.9 | 2040 |
| West Midlands | Severn Trent Water | 32.5 | 2040 |
| Mendips Quarry | South West Water | 46 | 2042 |
| River Adur offline reservoir | Southern Water | 19.5 | 2045 |
*Work is already underway on Portsmouth Water’s Havant Thicket reservoir
The Environment Agency has warned of an increasing risk of drought this summer following the driest start to spring in nearly 70 years. No new reservoir has been built in England since 1992.