WIREDGOV

To address the forecast water shortfall of 5 billion litres per day by 2055 as outlined in the EA’s National Framework for Water Resources (NFWR), published yesterday, it is critical that we deliver new water supply infrastructure.

Since its inception in 2019, the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) – an alliance between water regulators Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) – has made major progress in tackling our water scarcity challenge, by promoting regional and cross-sector collaboration and overcoming regulatory barriers to aid the development of essential new water supply schemes.

At Ofwat’s Price Review 2024, the RAPID programme was expanded to 28 schemes with over £2bn of funding allocated to progress their delivery at pace over AMP8 – unlocking around c.£50bn investment in the long-term.

A range of schemes in the RAPID pipeline – from reservoirs and large-scale water transfers to water recycling and desalination schemes – will help to ensure the security of our future water supply. These will deliver a minimum of a billion litres a day – one fifth of the shortfall outlined in the Framework – although the final contribution is expected to be higher.

Paul Hickey, Managing Director of RAPID, said: 

“The latest National Framework for Water Resources sends a very clear message about the need to build new infrastructure to increase resilience in our future supply.

“Since our creation in 2019, RAPID has driven greater collaboration across the sector and the development of new large scale strategic water supply options by the water companies which has led to an expanded programme of 28 schemes.

“Beyond national water resilience, delivering these schemes will unlock wider economic benefits by boosting jobs and providing capacity for new homes, as well as protecting and improving the environment – such as our precious chalk streams – by leaving more water for nature.

“As new pressures on water resources emerge, we will continue to support optioneering to further broaden and diversify our water supply solutions beyond the current RAPID pipeline.”

These water resource options will be key to ensuring sustainable and resilient supplies for generations to come, alongside the demand management and leakage reduction interventions announced in Ofwat’s Price Review 2024.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About the National Framework for Water Resources

The latest National Framework for Water Resources was released by the Environment Agency on 17 June 2025. Find out more here and press notice from the Environment Agency here.

About RAPID

RAPID was formed in 2019 to help aid the development of new water infrastructure and design future regulatory frameworks. The Alliance is a partnership between the three water regulators: Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

A schematic outlining the current 28 RAPID schemes is included below.

As indicated in the NFWR, RAPID pipeline will deliver a minimum of around 999 million litres per day – one fifth of the forecast supply deficit in the NFWR. The current pipeline, including contingency schemes, would provide additional capacity of up to 2,813 million litres per day (2.8 billion litres) in total. Companies are also being supported to explore options and bring new solutions to the RAPID pipeline over the coming years.

More information on RAPID’s progress over the past five years and key priorities for AMP8 can be found here.

More detail on RAPID schemes and funding at Ofwat’s 2024 Price Review can be found here.

More information about the RAPID gated process can be found here link.