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Water company Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs)

Information and advice for water companies on producing 25 year plans.

Progress on 2010 to 2035 plans

Most of you have published your final water resources management plans and have been completing annual reviews of these plans. The next round of the planning process starts in 2014.

We are working closely with the three remaining water companies who still need to publish their plans.   

Thames Water

Thames Water has re-consulted on its plan and is currently expecting to publish it in March 2012.  Please see the:

Dee Valley Water

Dee Valley Water will be publishing a final plan shortly.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

We have now published our representation on Welsh Water's revised draft water resources management plan.

As a statutory consultee, we produced documents on:

Legal reports

See Defra’s website for more details of the public inquiries held for Thames Water’s, South East Water’s and Portsmouth Water’s plan. The Environment Agency legal documents have been archived but are available on request by emailing Water-Company-Plan.

Regulations which affect you

The plans you submitted in 1999 and 2004 were produced on a voluntary basis. 

It is now your statutory duty as a water undertaker to prepare, consult, publish and maintain a water resources management plan under new sections of the Water Industry Act 1991, brought in by the Water Act of 2003.

  • Water Industry Act 1991 section 37 A to D, as amended by section 62 of the Water Act 2003
  • Water Act 2003
  • Water Resources Management Plan Regulations 2007

Further information and documentation is available from Defra's water resource planning web pages.

When producing your plans, you should follow the guidance and best practice set out in the water resources planning guideline, see below.

Once a plan is finalised, you should keep it under constant review and report any changes in its annual review to us and government. A new plan must be produced every five years or if there is a material change at any point during this period.

Water resources planning guideline

We work with Defra, the Welsh Government, Ofwat, Water UK and the water industry to develop and review the water resources planning guideline. This guideline provides you with a framework to follow, develop and maintain your water resources plans. Defra and the Welsh Government require that you follow this guideline.

The latest guideline was published in 2008. It was republished in April 2011 with minor updates.

In spring 2012 we will publish a new version of the guidance jointly with Defra, the Welsh Government and Ofwat. For more details and links see:

Navigation tool for smaller water undertakers

We are committed to supporting water companies to meet their statutory environmental duties by offering guidance and advice.

Our navigation tool is aimed at smaller water companies. It is one of the ways we can help you to produce your water resources management plan.

This navigational tool does not replace the Water Resources Planning Guideline (WRPG), but it will help smaller water companies focus on key elements. Please read it alongside the WRPG.

Annual review guidance

We published new guidance in September 2010 on what to include in your annual review: