Water Resources East (WRE) issued their first draft regional water resources plan in November 2022 and has been seeking feedback from stakeholders to improve their proposals that will be set out in their final plan to be issued in Autumn 2023. The plan covers:
- The water needs of different sectors in the region, both now and in the future
- Supply forecasts, reflecting climate change, drought resilience and abstraction reduction
- A “best value” plan to meet projected deficits
Suffolk Growth, working with all partner local authorities, has prepared a short response to the plan, based on the questions identified by WRE and identifying the key demand and supply side issues.
Cllr Richard Smith, Chair of the Joint Growth Portfolio Holders Group said “this response demonstrates the strength of our partnership work, bringing together officers from across teams and all councils to consider and address the water needs for sustainable growth and development across Suffolk. As a region we support economic sectors that are high water users, e.g., energy and food production. We need to work with government and WRE to ensure we have well managed water resources to remain at the forefront of delivering key policies, not just supporting major NSIPs, but securing UK energy generation and food production for years to come”.