Streamlining the Planning and Delivery of the Major Water Infrastructure Programme

19 March 2026

Reflections from Cheryl Steventon, Director RAPID Programme and Stakeholder Engagement

Water is our most precious resource but ensuring long-term resilient supplies is an increasing challenge, with England needing around 5 billion extra litres of water per day by 2055 to meet public demand.

We now have a Major Water Infrastructure Programme which includes 30 large-scale water infrastructure projects and will be delivered over the next 15 years. The programme covers a diverse range of projects at various levels of maturity from reservoirs to large-scale water transfer schemes (whose additional supply will meet about a third of England’s long-term deficit), to projects which have been constructed such as the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

It is our role to oversee and facilitate their development, planning and delivery, liaising with other regulators for example through the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID), to drive economic growth and environmental benefits, adapt to climate change as well as improving water supply resilience.

The £50bn+ programme will make a significant impact on economic growth, contributing up to £40bn to the economy by 2050. It will create more than 46,000 construction jobs and leave a lasting legacy of skills. Longer-term, the programme could unlock around £4-12bn in additional economic growth in 2050 – with benefits continuing beyond that point.

Until now, water companies and stakeholders have had to navigate two separate regulatory processes – the RAPID gated process and Ofwat’s commercial stages, each with its own requirements, timelines, and decision points.

To streamline this, we are today (18 March, 2026) launching the Major Water Infrastructure Programme combined gated process that brings these previously separate frameworks into one clear, transparent pathway.

The aim is simple: join up delivery, improve collaboration, and give everyone involved – from regulators to water companies to the public – much greater clarity about how major water infrastructure projects progress from concept to completion without losing regulatory scrutiny.

Why a new process was needed

Given the breadth and complexity of these major projects, and their importance in unlocking long term economic growth, we have been reviewing ways to better support their delivery. This included writing to companies in March last year to ask how the projects they are involved in might be accelerated and the benefits maximised.

While both processes are essential, companies fed back that moving between the RAPID gates – designed to test project feasibility – and Ofwat’s stages, which focus on commercial and procurement aspects, was not always smooth.

Our cross-cutting review with partner regulators including the Environment Agency, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Natural Resources Wales, and Natural England further identified the need for a unified project lifecycle that applies consistently across all major water infrastructure projects.

What the combined gated process looks like

The new combined gated process responds to the feedback we’ve received, by creating a single, end-to-end process which will reduce duplication, align expectations, and help projects move faster without compromising regulatory scrutiny.

It comprises six stages and gates, from optioneering to project closeout. Gates A – D are formal decision points where regulators assess progress, risk, cost, and readiness to advance to the next phase. Gates E – F are for post-regulatory activity that may be required during construction, commissioning and closeout. Gates A – B are overseen by RAPID, with later gates managed by Ofwat.

By combining two approaches into one, the combined gated process will:

• increase clarity about decision making

• break down silos between organisations

• reduce duplication and unnecessary burden

• ensure customers’ money is spent efficiently

• improve environmental and customer outcomes.
  Today we have published our overall guidance on how the new combined gated process will work, as well as detailed guidance for gate A, the first in the process. We will be publishing similarly detailed guidance for each of the other gates in the coming weeks.

We are mindful of the need to carefully manage the transition on this new combined gated process, and to do so in a phased way. Following discussion with water companies, some projects are not transitioning, where they were already close to RAPID gated submission dates.

Where they are transitioning, each project has been mapped onto the single combined process after considering feedback from the All Company Working Group (ACWP) and discussions with companies in regular checkpoint meetings.

Why this matters

These changes demonstrate our willingness to act on feedback to improve how our regulation is applied to deliver outcomes for customers, communities and the environment.

RAPID and Ofwat’s Major Projects team continue to carry out their regulatory roles, now operating using this single, combined process that helps critical infrastructure progress at pace while protecting customers and the environment. Streamlining these processes will strengthen the planning and delivery of a critical major water infrastructure investment programme that will secure our future water supply for generations to come.