Anglian to spend £444m over coming year

Anglian Water plans to plough £444 million into maintaining and improving customer services across the East of England over the coming year.

The water firm said the investment will be funded by bills of £1.12 a day, a 2p per day rise on last year including inflation.

The investment over the next 12 months will include:

• £30 million to keep leakage levels at industry-leading lows
• £24 million maintaining, refurbishing and replacing parts of the 37,000km water pipe network
• £15 million for jetting and cleaning sewers to keep them clear of fatbergs and wipes
• £12 million to connect hundreds more homes to the mains sewerage network for the first time in the next year
• Around £10 million – rising to £30 million over the next three years – to adopt and refurbish private pumping stations that will become our responsibility in 2017

Anglian Water has stressed that its customers’ bills are still lower than they were three years ago after it dropped its prices by 7 per cent last year. It cut average bills by £29 - the biggest reduction of any major water company in the UK.

Anglian Water director of customer and information services Martyn Oakley said: “Bills are back down to what they were three years ago thanks to the reductions we’ve made and the top priority we place on being efficient and offering value for money. We’re keeping costs as low as possible for the long-term while investing heavily in the region in line with customer priorities.” health2delivery.com

The company’s five-year Business Plan, to 2020, was shaped by 50,000 customers and approved by 90 per cent of those surveyed following the water company’s biggest ever public consultation.

This story originally appeared on WWTonline.co.uk.