Have your say on South East Water’s top priorities

South East Water has defined seven strategic priorities to meet its future challenges and explains what it plans to achieve for customers and society by 2050 in its Strategic Direction Statement (SDS).

This vision for the next 25 years is the foundation for the company’s long-term delivery strategy and the business plans it produces every five years.

The SDS outlines South East Water’s challenges and its priorities to meet customers’ expectations, secure future water resources, reduce leaks and water demand, improve resilience and performance, reduce its carbon footprint and adapt to climate change while protecting and restoring the environment and biodiversity.

The closing date for comments is 10 April.

Oliver Martin, South East Water’s Regulation and Strategy Director said: “How we intend to provide the public water service, meet the demands of our customers and wider society and balance diverse and sometimes conflicting requirements and expectations are all outlined in this document.”

“Protecting and restoring the environment and biodiversity, adapting to climate change and reducing our carbon footprint are challenges in themselves but they will also determine how we tackle our other challenges.”

The SDS brings together the learning from long-term plans and the result of many hours of discussions with customers, retailers and stakeholders.

Oliver continued: “By talking to a wide range of people and organisations we have worked to ensure our priorities reflect their expectations about our core service and how we should act as a responsible business.

“We are now going back to customers and stakeholders to ensure that our final vision and ambition truly reflects their preferences and priorities about what we do and how we do it.”

South East Water outlines how the company will work with customers, stakeholders and partners to:

• Provide top quality drinking water and an efficient service, support its customers and deliver greater value to society.
• Manage and steward its assets, invest and innovate to ensure its water supply system is resilient to future challenges.
• Protect and enhance the environment and biodiversity.
• Reduce its carbon footprint, adapt to the impact of climate change and be a truly sustainable business.
• Secure the future of water by protecting freshwater resources and developing new sustainable sources.
• Secure the future of water by halving leakage and helping reduce the demand for water.
• Be ready for the future through technology, innovation and investing in people.

South East Water’s strategy for each of its three regions (Kent, Sussex and Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey is based on local experience will be adapted to their characteristics, specific challenges and the needs and priorities of local customers and communities.

Oliver added: “We operate our supply system across three operational regions. Each has specific characteristics determined by different river catchments, geology, topography, ecology and land use and are also the result of how our infrastructure was developed over time. For these reasons, our future challenges will impact each of them differently.”

The SDS also sets out how the company will deal with risks and uncertainties through adaptive planning ensuring its strategy evolves and that the right solutions are delivered at the right time.

Oliver said: “There are many uncertainties about our future challenges. This is why we will regularly update our strategy to shape our business plans, ensuring that we deliver our long-term priorities to 2050.”

To view the draft plan in full and submit feedback visit: southeastwater.co.uk/strategicdirectionstatement