“Water is an absolute critical issue for the Cambridge local plan”

“Water is a real threat to the sustainable growth of Cambridge,” says Tom Holbrook, Director of 5th Studio, an architecture practice that undertook the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge Corridor study for the National Infrastructure Commission. “Anglian Water is planning a new reservoir, but it extracts the same water from the Ouse catchment – and that’s already in trouble.”

Holbrook says the problem is too severe to be addressed by the design of new homes: “No amount of restricters on taps or bricks in cisterns is going to address the level of scarcity.”

The issue needs tackling at the regional scale, Holbrook adds, however “there aren’t the right strategic planning frameworks and the water company areas fragment the area in an unhelpful way in relation to watersheds.”

Holbrook has been arguing for a 100-mile new national park that would convey water from the Derwent-Trent catchment. This major project, which assembles a number of existing proposals into a larger whole over time, would restore the derelict Banbury arm of the Grand Union Canal, and create a “continuous riverine landscape” from the Cherwell to the Cam, with a new Bedford and Milton Keynes waterway that links the Grand Union Canal to the Ouse.

“It would need proper funding that will never come just ‘from the market’ – but requires partnership with local and national government,” Holbrook says.

“Proper funding will never come just ‘from the market’ – but requires partnership with local and national government”

Given the Arc has been touted since 2003 as a flagship government project, you would think that government funding for water infrastructure would be a no-brainer, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson having bolstered the Oxford-Cambridge Arc as “a compelling ‘front door’ for international investors.”

But there is speculation that, under the new Levelling Up agenda, government priorities have shifted away from Ox-Cam, despite the once fevered rhetoric. 

On future investment, a spokesperson from the Environment Agency said, “As we look to the next round of water resources management plans early next year, water companies again will be taking some big decisions around investments in their infrastructure. The planned growth in Ox-Cam will feature in this, and the plans will ensure there is enough water available.”

Cambridge is not alone in facing a water crisis that could undermine housebuilding, but in other parts of England, it’s filthy water that is uprooting plans. Already 10 local planning authorities (LPAs) in England have issued planning moratoriums since 2019 due to polluted rivers with high nitrate levels after receiving advice from Natural England.

Planning moratoriums have hit Herefordshire Council in the catchments of the River Wye and River Lugg (2019), the Solent region (2019), Kent in the Stour Valley catchment (July 2020), South Somerset District, Sedgemoor District, Mendip District, Somerset West and Taunton Councils’ Somerset Levels and Moors (August 2020), and Cornwall Council’s River Camel (April 2021).

Research by Savills has suggested 10% of LPAs in England have been affected, which will cause a 50-70% drop in volume of new homes delivered.

An excess of nitrate in rivers is caused by intensive agriculture in combination with the sewage crisis. In 2020, not a single river in England was considered to be in good health.

There is speculation that, under the new Levelling Up agenda, government priorities have shifted away from Ox-Cam, despite the once fevered rhetoric

Farms in England are feared to have been left unregulated by a lack of inspection and enforcement. The Environment Agency recently announced that it would hire an additional 50 new farm inspectors in addition to the existing staff of 28 – a total of 78 staff charged with inspecting some 192,000 English farms. As for enforcement, not one of the 243 violations documented by EA have been prosecuted or fined since 2018. 

A leaked report by the EA in early 2020 revealed that fertiliser spread on farms contained dangerous chemicals including E-Coli, microplastics, salmonella, persistent organic pollutants and the antimicrobial triclosan, which scientists believe may cause antibiotic resistance. A 2018 study of the River Axe in Somerset by the Environment Agency found that half of farmers were polluting the river. 

Sewage overflows from crumbling water infrastructure compounds the nitrate problem, an issue that recently ignited public anger. Sewage pollution in British seas has increased by 88 per cent, according to a 2021 Surfers against Sewage water quality report. 

Not a single river in England is in good environmental health according to the Environment Agency’s 2020 report

Another risk to property in the UK is flooding, with one in 10 new homes built in England at risk. Environment Agency inspectors last year found that more than 1,000 privately owned flood defences were classed in a poor or very poor condition, threatening places including Sheffield and Rochdale. Nearly a third of all “high consequence” flood defences are owned privately. 

Floods in Walthamstow this summer had residents complaining about signs of raw sewage in the streets and inside flooded homes after the drains were overwhelmed by a sudden July downpour. In October, homes and streets in Cumbria were flooded with sewage as overflows struck at 14 sites along the coast.   

Taken together, its perhaps unsurprising that the water crisis is raising hairs on the arms of property investors, as they seek sites for ESG investment.

Alexandra Notay, Placemaking and Investment Director for PfP Capital says, “Investors are looking more closely at all ESG factors. The implication of flooding has always been a risk factor, but it’s being scrutinised more than ever before.”

Notay says developers are seeing increased costs due to flood risk, with a growing expectation by councils to provide dry escape routes, while also restricting uses on the ground and lower-ground floors due to flood-risk, increasing the pressure to build higher.

The water crisis is raising hairs on the arms of some property investors, as they seek sites for investment 

Notay says flood risk assessments can change the value of land overnight – and flooding itself is unpredictable. While flood risk has traditionally been based on historical records, “We now know it’s not the new builds on the floodplain that tend to flood, but adjacent neighbourhoods that have never flooded.”

The UK water crisis comes as water companies are facing a growing public backlash, with everyone from singer Bob Geldof to the leader of Portsmouth City Council joining the call for change and threatening actions such as a boycott on payment of water bills. Meanwhile, water industry regulator Ofwat has raised alarm over the financial health of Southern Water, Yorkshire Water and SES Water, casting doubt on whether they will be able to improve their environmental performance. 

It is perverse to see the water industry undermine planning, given their shared history. Access to clean water and sanitation is the most basic of development ambitions as the sixth UN Sustainable Development goal. It seems inconceivable that housebuilding in England is hamstrung by an inability to provide decent water services, yet there it is.