Water main replacements, new storm tanks and improved climate resilience have been announced as part of Anglian Water's record-breaking investment plans, starting this month.

The work is designed to provide new infrastructure and upgrades to support regional economic growth, deliver on “commitments to customers” and improve resilience in the face of “increasing impacts of climate change,” said the company.

The £1.6bn of investment is part of a five-year business plan, which includes improvements worth £11bn, due to be completed by 2030.

£1.1bn has already been spent by Anglian Water under the five-year plan and it said teams have “broken ground on more than 1,000 capital delivery schemes”, with 500 expected to start from April.

In addition, £269M will be spent in 2026 to reduce spills from storm overflows, including £47M to build 35 new storm tanks. The tanks “will significantly increase stormwater storage capacity, meaning sites can store excess flows during heavy rainfall to be treated later”.

Anglian said this would “prevent untreated water from entering rivers and coastal areas, protecting the East of England’s precious natural environment”.

The company has a target to replace more than 1,100km of water mains by 2030, with 100km already laid.

“This £348M investment will make Anglian’s network stronger and more resilient, meaning fewer leaks, bursts and service interruptions for customers in the future,” Anglian said.

It pointed out that the East of England region is one of the driest parts of the UK, as well as the fastest growing, with 720,000 new residents expected in the region by 2043.

To meet this challenge, the company plans to “deliver the investment needed to prepare the region for this level of growth, as well as navigating the challenges, extremes and uncertainties that climate change will bring”.

People in Ipswich and Colchester are already benefiting from Anglian Water’s strategic pipeline and people are invited to share their opinions by 12 April 2026 on plans for a new pipeline between Cambridge and Rede.

In addition, the third round of consultations on the proposed Fens Reservoir closed in December 2025 and the feedback report will be published in late Spring 2026.

The company added: “Significant progress has also been made to upgrade sewer performance and protect the environment during the first year of the programme.

“The East of England now has the cleanest bathing waters in the country, and expected blockages have been cut by 58% in hotspot areas as the water company continues to invest to improve pollution performance and protect the region’s natural environment.”

Anglian plans to install 2.2M smart meters by 2030 and has already installed 315,000 during the first year of the five year business plan.

According to the company, “85% of Anglian’s customers are billed through smart meters, saving customers money and encouraging efficient water usage”.

Anglian Water chief executive Mark Thurston said: “Water is critical to enabling economic growth and we are investing £1.6bn in the East of England’s water and sewerage infrastructure from April to build better resilience against the impacts of climate change, protect our environment and keep customers’ taps running for years to come.

“This is part of our £11bn investment plan, which will be delivered by 2030.”

He added: “We are making great strides in delivering our investment programme, and are seeing improvements in our performance, but we have lots of work ahead of us to deliver for our existing and future customers.”

New Major Projects Framework established to deliver on ambitions

Anglian Water told NCE in an interview in February 2026 it needed to establish a new Major Projects Framework to bring in “additional firepower” to deliver its sizeable future work portfolio.

The company already had the long-established @One Alliance (featuring Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Binnies, Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB), Sweco, Skanska and MWH Treatment), the recently-renewed Strategic Pipeline Alliance (with Costain, Farrans, Jacobs and MMB) and a newly-formed programme delivery partner (combining AtkinsRéalis, Mace and Turner & Townsend).

Speaking at the time, Anglian Water director of commercial operations Jason Tucker said: “When we saw the nature of AMP8 – being radically different in scale and complexity to AMP7 – we realised that, as well as doubling down on some of the existing arrangements that we had in place, we needed some additional firepower.

“We formed our plan for the deliverability of AMP8 back in 2023 and as part of that we determined that we needed to bring on a programme delivery partner – which we successfully procured and have now got mobilised.”

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