Water Resources North (WReN) is a new group that is designed to oversee water resources planning at a regional scale for the North East of England and Yorkshire. WReNs ambition is to be a national leader for water resource management. This will help facilitate sustainable growth across the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, in support of the ambition of the Northern Powerhouse.
WReN will ensure that the wider region has a sustainable, long-term plan for water resources that protects resilience in the face of challenges such as climate change and population growth. WReN will work with other regions to help secure resilient water supplies for the country as a whole.
The core group is formed and funded by Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water and Hartlepool Water. However, it will engage with, and actively involve, all of those who have an interest in water resources in our region. This will include sectors other than public water supply who make beneficial use of the water in our environment, such as agriculture, industry and energy. The importance of water to our region’s environment, ecology and biodiversity will also play a key role in shaping our future plans.
Over the next couple of years, WReN will be working with customers, water dependent sectors of the economy, other stakeholders such as environmental groups and regulators, to shape a long-term plan for managing water resources in the region. Where this plan impacts on public water supply, it will be reflected in water companies’ statutory Water Resource Management Plans in 2024. Where this plan affects other sectors, WReN will look to work with those sectors to understand how they can also support long term water resources resilience in the north, including looking for opportunities for collaborative solutions.
In March 2020, WReN published its Initial Resources Position, which is available via the link below. This report is the first publication from WReN. Building on information included in the Water Resources National Framework and data from companies’ Water Resources Management Plans 2019, it sets out the current resource position for the wider WReN region. As well as setting out the wider regional resources position, this report describes initial thoughts on environmental ambition, and how the group will engage with other sectors in a way that is useful and meaningful to the water resources planning process, so that we it create a plan that is relevant to our region and it reflects its priorities.