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Water resources planning guideline

Guide for water companies to follow to develop and present their water resources plans.

The water resources planning guideline (WRPG) provides a framework for you to follow when developing, maintaining or reviewing your water resources plans:

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading these documents by emailing us at  Water-Company-Plan

The planning guideline:

  • helps show you how you will maintain a balance between demand and supply for water
  • sets out good practice for you to follow covering the:
    • composition of a plan
    • approaches to developing a plan, and
    • information that a plan should contain.

What we've updated and are currently working on

In April 2011 we published an updated version of the 2008 guideline. The main changes are highlighted in yellow in the document and are outlined below:

  • A recognition of the existence of the UKCP09 climate change scenarios. Full guidance on how to apply them will be available for the next water resources planning round.
  • References to Regional Spatial Strategies have been adjusted to reflect the Coalition Government policies.
  • Updated information on the cost of carbon to reflect the latest information available.
  • Updated references to Welsh Assembly Government and Welsh Ministers to ensure consistent use of the correct terminology.
  • Correction of errors that have appeared over time in the tables and table references, mainly as a result of changes made to previous versions.

The changes we have made to the WRPG since the last publication in 2008 are highlighted in yellow.

We have now started a full review of the water resources planning guideline to support the 2014 water resources management plan submissions. This will be available from Spring 2012.