Enabling Water Smart Communities

Competition: Breakthrough 2: Transform

Amount awarded: £5,535,000

Led by: Anglian Water

Partners: Thames Water, United Utilities, Arup, University of Manchester, University of East Anglia, Anglian Centre for Water Studies, Community Land Trust Network, Centre for Local Economic Strategies, Dark Matter Labs, KWR, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Clarion Housing Group, Future Homes Hub, Taylor Wimpey, Thakeham Group, Suffolk County Council, Cambridge Water, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Severn Trent Water, Southern Water

Estimated completion date: June 2026

Water cycle tag: Customers and communities

See project updates on the Enabling Water Smart Communities website or LinkedIn page.

Why we need water smart communities? Watch this video for more information – originally published by Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC).

There remain significant challenges to customers, communities and the environment from frequent flood events, sustained droughts and impacts on water quality.

Housing development in its current form and rapid growth will further augment these challenges, increasing demand on water and wastewater services to an unsustainable position

Integrated Water Management (IWM) provides a solution by combining infrastructure, technologies, policies, and behaviour change initiatives to improve lives through co-ordinated water management.

IWM is rarely delivered due to ongoing stewardship issues, static regulatory and policy standards and lack of affordability.

This project will take an innovative approach to tackling these by:

• Rethinking assets: Develop and test innovative IWM design and asset management to support new stewardship models;
• Rethinking roles: Challenge regulatory and policy standards to support stakeholders;
• Rethinking value: Understand stakeholder motivations to develop financial models to unlock new sources of investment, and realign existing sources, to deliver affordable IWM.

“This project is urgently needed to bring together the wide range of development partners to identify and break down barriers to integrated water management. It is essential that we come together at a time when water demand is only going to continue through both growth and climate change; to demonstrate a replicable approach for future sustainable development.”

George Warren, Integrated Water Management Lead, Anglian Water

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Update from the project (January 2026)

We have selected and commenced the following Tranche 2 enabling action projects: Ledger Tech: exploring how ledger-based technology could enable and incentivise water smart communities. This will examine the potential use cases, and assess the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of this technology. Designing smarter urban water systems for low water demand developments: The project aims to develop an integrated urban water transport model of drinking water and sewer systems for water-efficient residential areas, using modelling and scenario analysis to inform future-proof infrastructure design. Project Outputs“ Website (https://www.ewsc.org.uk/project-reports) Building Standards Part G Consultation: EWSC Response: Environmental Incentives: Standardisation across the water sector to deliver water smart housing Benefit-cost analysis for high-quality SuDS Impacts of Water Conservation on Sewer Systems Planning for Water: The Value Of High-Quality SuDS Summary of Water Sector Environmental Incentives: 2025-2026 Charging Period Water Efficiency and Reuse in Housing: Design Guide for a Changing Climate A people-centred perspective on Enabling Water Smart Communities Autumn Webinar series: Delivered a 5-part Autumn Webinar Series o YouTube playlist and Accordion-edited videos EWSC News Articles: ‘Water Stories: The Ick factor’ (Good Homes Alliance Guide excerpt) ‘New report calls for urgent action to bridge skills gap for water reuse in the UK’ ‘Enabling water smart communities through distributed ledger technology: How blockchain could transform water governance and collaboration’ Priorities for the remainder of the project: Continue to refine and finalise the Transition Pathway and New Operating Model, identifying the approach for maximising long-term impact of our findings and ensuring continued value beyond the project’s completion Finalise any outstanding items from Tranche 1 & Tranche 2 projects Focus now on the Building Centre Exhibition and close-out/Transition event.