Consultation outcome

An update to the water company drought plan guideline: 2019

From:
Environment Agency
Published
9 September 2019
Last updated
10 January 2020 — See all updates
This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Water company drought plan update - consultation response summary

PDF, 467KB, 14 pages

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Detail of outcome

Read the Water company drought plan update – consultation response summary for the main findings and actions we will take.

We plan to update our GOV.UK web pages and issue the final water company drought plan guidance in March 2020. We expect water companies to start using the guideline this year when they review and update their drought plans.

Detail of feedback received

We received 47 responses. Of these:

  • 13 were from water companies
  • 13 were from individuals
  • 12 were from environmental groups and charities
  • 9 were from public or nationally representative bodies

Over half asked for more environmental protection, especially for chalk streams. The main areas you asked us to improve included:

  • customer communications
  • application readiness for potential drought permit or orders
  • links between drought plans, Water Resources Management Plans and Regional Plans
  • environmental assessment and extreme drought options
  • the format of the guideline

Original consultation

Summary

We're seeking views on changes to the water company drought plan guideline (WC DPG) and the new and updated supplementary guidance.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

We formally review and update our guidance to water companies on preparing their drought plans every 5 years.

The water company drought plan guideline (WC DPG) sets out what companies must and should include in their statutory drought management plans. These plans focus what companies plan to do to maintain water supply and protect the environment from their operations during a drought.

The WC DPG has been updated to ensure that all technical information is up to date and lessons learnt from recent research and experience of drought has been incorporated.

We want to hear from the organisations and individuals affected by the guideline.

Published 9 September 2019
Last updated 10 January 2020 + show all updates

  1. We have published the Water company drought plan update - consultation response summary.

  2. First published.