South Shropshire MP Philip Dunne welcomes today's announcement that Severn Trent Water has been given the green light by Defra, Ofwat and the Environment Agency to fast-track its investment of £95 million on environmental projects originally scheduled to start in 2025.

The announcement is part of a larger initiative aimed at accelerating future investment, which will see £1.6 billion invested by water companies across England.

The early delivery of three key environmental projects will help tackle key industry challenges of water scarcity and river health.

The projects include installation of an additional 250,000 smart meters to help customers reduce demand and tackle leakage; a project to help increase reservoir capacity to provide more water resilience across the region; and installation of enhanced monitoring at 80 sewage treatment works to support river health.

The announcement comes ahead of the government's Integrated Plan for Water, due to be published soon, to set out how the UK can achieve cleaner and more plentiful water for future generations. Over £1.6 billion of new investment will be directed into vital infrastructure to improve water quality of our rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, and secure future water supplies.

Severn Trent Water’s early delivery of these three key environmental projects will also bolster water resilience and improve river health in the Severn Trent region.

Philip Dunne said:

“This new investment in Severn Trent's region is additional to the £4.5million being invested to kmprove the River Teme over the next two years. These new measures will help measure the environmental challenges we face to restore the health of our rivers.

“These fast-tracked projects will also boost water resilience, improve river health, and help reduce leakage, all of which are critical issues in South Shropshire.

“Severn Trent is leading the way among water companies in its actions and commitments to get on top of the unacceptable discharges of treated and untreated sewage in recent years.”