The Major Water Infrastructure Programme includes 30 large-scale water infrastructure projects set out at PR24 which aim to drive environmental benefits, support economic growth and provide resilience for generations to come. It includes nationally significant projects in the early phases of development right through to those that have been constructed such as the Thames Tideway Tunnel.
The Major Water Infrastructure Programme is supported by a coordinated regulatory framework designed to oversee, support, and assess the development and delivery of these large‑scale projects across England and Wales. These projects typically exceed £200 million in total expenditure and meet criteria for delivery through Ofwat’s competitive procurement models such as Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC) or the Specified Infrastructure Projects Regulations (SIPR) although some projects will also be delivered directly by the water companies. The programme also includes Strategic Resource Options (SROs) which are overseen by the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID).
At its core, the programme brings together all major water infrastructure projects to facilitate the previously separate RAPID gated process and Ofwat’s commercial and procurement stages into a single, transparent, end‑to‑end lifecycle.
The programme aims to accelerate the development and delivery of water infrastructure, ensure efficient use of the ring‑fenced development funding awarded at PR24, promote collaboration across regulators and companies, and protect customers and the environment. It operates alongside statutory processes such as Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs) and planning and consenting regimes, ensuring projects remain aligned with long‑term water resilience needs.
Delivering the Major Water Infrastructure Programme
The very early development phases of the projects pre-planning typically involve a lot of work with a variety of regulators before a project can be confirmed as feasible and demonstrating best value through the WRMP process. In order to facilitate the co-ordination of this, RAPID oversees this part of the gated process. For further information visit our RAPID web page.
Once a project has progressed to the planning process it moves into the Ofwat Major Projects team’s oversight during the commercial and procurement stages.
Why is the Major Water Infrastructure Programme happening?
Our nation’s water resources are coming under increasing pressure from challenges such as climate change and population growth, and the need to protect the environment. We must lower our impact on the natural environment and the wildlife that relies on it by taking less water from rivers and aquifers. The Major Water Infrastructure Programme protects and enhances natural systems as a foundation of resilient and sustainable economic activity.
This combined gated process sets out clear decision points from project conception through planning, procurement, construction, commissioning, and operation. It enables regulators – including Ofwat, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, and Natural Resources Wales – to collectively assess progress, risks, costs, environmental impacts, and deliverability.
Infrastructure projects are needed to meet England and Wales’ growing water supply and wastewater management needs. Without action, in England there is a forecast 5 billion litre a day deficit for public water supply by 2055. This is around one third of the water currently put into supply by water companies. Developing infrastructure is a vital part of the solution and it is essential that the right schemes are delivered at the right time to support economic growth, improve resilience and protect the environment.
RAPID have set out the challenge further and laid out the reasoning for the increase in the number of major projects in the pipeline. We aim to ensure that companies are developing and delivering projects in a timely and efficient manner, whilst protecting customers and the environment.
Ofwat’s PR24 final determinations accepted a portfolio of 30 major infrastructure projects with a whole life totex estimated at over £50 billion (2022-23 prices).
We expect a significant number of projects in the portfolio to be competitively tendered and delivered by third parties, rather than the water companies. Currently, we have two models of competitive delivery: the Direct Procurement for Customers framework (DPC) and the Specified Infrastructure Project Regulations (SIPR), which was used for Thames Tideway Tunnel.
The 30 projects are in addition to four existing projects – Thames Tideway (which is being delivered under SIPR and is already operational), United Utilities’ Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP), and Dŵr Cymru’s Cwm Taf water treatment works, all being competitively delivered, and Portsmouth Water’s Havant Thicket reservoir which is being delivered in-house and is subject to a 10-year price control.
The combined gated process
The combined gated process is a single, end-to-end process which is designed to reduce duplication, align expectations, and help projects move through Ofwat’s and RAPID’s approvals process faster without compromising scrutiny.
To ensure the major water infrastructure projects stay on track, a suite of ongoing assurance tools are used between gates, including:
- quarterly reporting
- checkpoint meetings
- focused technical discussions
- independent assurance reviews, including “critical friend” assessments well ahead of key gates.
These checks give early visibility of risks, support collaboration, ensure projects remain feasible as they develop and help avoid surprises late in development.
The Programme Overview sets out the overarching framework and principles for the combined gated process used by the regulating bodies to oversee, support and assess the delivery of the projects by companies, within the Major Water Infrastructure Programme.
Whilst each project will have its unique plan and timetable, the gates will act as a regulatory milestone to assess progress, review costs and check that a project is still progressing as required. Detailed guidance is available here.