Corporate report

Mining Remediation Authority business plan 2025 to 2028

Published 23 June 2025

1. Who we are

The Mining Remediation Authority are a 24/7/365 emergency response organisation who protect life, drinking water and the environment from the legacy of mining.

We have colleagues across Great Britain ready to respond and take action to keep people safe and provide peace of mind.

Extensive coalfields exist across Great Britain and roughly 25% of homes and businesses across Great Britain are located above former coal mines.

The vast majority of people will never experience any problems from that, but for those who do we are here to provide support and expertise.

So much of Great Britain’s history has been shaped by the natural minerals under our soil. None more than coal, which has provided heat, steam and power for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Coal was nationalised in 1947, which is why the UK government own the majority of underground workings and remaining coal reserves under England, Scotland and Wales, along with the responsibility for many of the associated challenges and hazards.

As domestic coal mining has reduced and humanity recognises the impacts of burning carbon on our climate, we are seeking alternative ways to maximise low-carbon opportunities from closed and abandoned mines, such as mine water heat networks.

These provide clean heat for homes and businesses, and benefit communities whose identity was built from coal and who can now benefit from low carbon, social and economic benefits from the warm water in the historical mining assets.

We work with partners, communities and customers to listen, learn and take practical action together to make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas and to enable safe growth, economic development and community benefit.

This includes using our expertise to provide services which remediate pollution and manage risk from other types of mining and contamination.

The Mining Remediation Authority is a non-departmental public body and partner organisation of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Energy Minster Michael Shanks, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and sponsoring minister for the Mining Remediation Authority, said:

I’ve been delighted to witness first-hand the essential 24/7 work of the Mining Remediation Authority to deliver front line services for communities across Great Britain, which protect life, property, drinking water, and the environment from mining legacy.

I have also welcomed their focus on enabling growth by working with developers and conveyancers and through proportionate regulation and guidance.

Their continued efforts on innovation to deliver new services to reduce cost to the taxpayer and support the delivery of the UK Government Plan for Change are commendable.

2. Foreword

Written by chair Jeff Halliwell and chief executive Lisa Pinney MBE.

We are delighted to share with you our 2025 to 2028 business plan, which takes us another 3 year step towards our 10 year vision to 2032, which was agreed in 2022.

It’s important to focus our thinking both short and longer term – especially important when considering the impacts of climate change and extreme weather on our work and our focus to deliver real, demonstrable improvements and enable safe growth, development and housing in the communities that we serve across Great Britain.

Our plan lays out our priorities for delivery including emergency response for subsidence and hazards; preventing mine water from polluting drinking water, rivers or the sea; enabling growth, housing and development in coalfield areas and providing information and reports to help homeowners, infrastructure providers and others make informed decisions.

It shows both what we have delivered over the past 3 years and what we will deliver in the period ahead.

Working towards our 10 year vision in 3 or 4 year plans is allowing us to adapt as needed to deliver the most we can for the communities we serve and to consider the implications of government spending reviews as we do so.

We’ve made a strong start against the ambitions of our vision – with clear progress on innovation such as mine water heat and by-products development, increased service delivery, enabling a more diverse and representative workforce to better reflect the communities we serve, delivering better customer service, more social and environmental value and changing our name from the Coal Authority to the Mining Remediation Authority.

Over the past 3 years our work has enabled 885,000 hectares to be safely developed, supporting economic growth and housing priorities across the 3 nations we serve.

We now have the capacity to treat 232 billion litres of mine water (an increase of 15 billion litres from 2022) to protect drinking water, rivers and the sea, have enabled 3 mine water heat schemes to deliver energy-secure, clean heat and economic benefits to those communities and increased our service delivery income by £2.7 million, which helps to reduce our cost to the taxpayer.

We’ve attended 2,615 hazards and incidents, supporting emergency partners and becoming a Category 2 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act, which improves our partnership and effective working.

You can read more about these outcomes, and other progress, in the theme chapters of the plan.

The vision was deliberately ambitious and there are areas which need greater focus through this plan period.

This includes work to increase our investment in renewables and reduce our scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions more significantly.

The learning we have taken and skills we have developed through the past 3 years will help us make more progress through this period.

This is also true for our climate change adaptation work, where we’ve upskilled and progressed our thinking which will come together in a published plan during this period.

We’ve made clear progress in delivering digital improvements and especially greater accessibility for customers which has helped us achieve the Institute of Customer Service ServiceMark Accreditation.

We’ve taken learning along the way which will inform this next phase of our journey at a time where digital progress is moving fast and we are beginning to use AI and other new technologies to improve our productivity and delivery further.

This will help us to better connect people to their mining history and unlock opportunities from our data and historic records to support our own work and the work of others.

Looking forwards you will recognise the connection between our business plan and the UK Government Plan for Change where we contribute particularly to the Clean Energy SuperPower, Kick Start Economic Growth and Break Down Barriers to Opportunity missions.

As a UK government sponsored body working across Great Britain closely with and for the Welsh and Scottish governments and partners, we also carefully consider our contribution to their priorities – including the practical delivery of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (2015) in Wales and the Just Transition and associated net zero, energy and social justice priorities in Scotland.

The ‘middle plan’ of a 10 year vision has to be the engine house. The 2022 to 2025 plan was designed to be both ambitious and enabling and this 2025 to 2028 plan is focused to deliver, building on the learning of the past 3 years whilst continuing to adapt and learn through this transformative and often uncertain global period.

Our aspirations remain high. The increasing complexity of the challenges we face, such as the nature of the mine water recovery in the large English ‘super mines’ which closed in the past 15 years, and the increased impact of extreme weather on our assets and incidents demand even more innovative approaches.

To meet these aspirations and challenges we will need to build on what we have achieved to date and deliver even more creative solutions with greater value, efficiency and effectiveness in the years ahead.

Our passionate and dedicated colleagues are the heart of the Mining Remediation Authority and we remain committed to their support, development and wellbeing.

This allows us to recruit and retain diverse and highly skilled individuals who will help us to tackle the complex challenges we face from Great Britain’s mining legacy and enable the most beneficial opportunities and innovation now and in the future.

We will continue to do this working closely with our partners and supply chain and the customers and communities we serve to deliver the best outcomes that we can together.

We know that we can only achieve our mission of making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas by continuing to listen and learn.

We invite you to continue to help, to hold us to account and to challenge where you think we can do better.

3. Our mission, purpose and values

Our mission, purpose and values were developed with our colleagues and input from partners and adopted by the board in April 2019.

These were revisited as part of our vision and business plan development in 2022 and the board reviewed and agreed that they remain relevant and at the heart of our work and approach for this next period.

3.1 Our mission

Making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

3.2 Our purpose

• we keep people safe and provide peace of mind
• we protect and enhance the environment
• we use our information and expertise to help people make informed decisions
• we create value and minimise cost to the taxpayer

3.3 Our values

Trusted

• we act with integrity
• we are open and transparent
• we deliver on our commitments

Inclusive

• we promote a culture of mutual respect
• we recognise that our differences make us stronger
• we work with others to achieve our mission

Progressive

• we are open minded and innovative
• we recognise that the past can help us shape the future
• we listen and learn

4. Our vision for 2032

Our vision was first published in 2022. We made progress against it in our 2022 to 2025 business plan and our 2025 to 2028 business plan describes how we will make further progress towards these ambitions over the next 3 years.

Our 10 year vision remains focused on our mission of making ‘a better place for people and the environment in mining areas’ and our mission, purpose and values remain at the heart of what we do.

Over this period we will need to continue to evolve and adapt, recognising that external factors and context (such as climate change, customer expectation and digital developments) will require this.

We are mindful of the continued ageing of the historical coal assets we manage, the increasing need for low-carbon opportunities and innovation, and that things we are currently unaware of will undoubtedly appear, increase in relevance or change through the dynamic times ahead.

By 2032 we will have made real progress in reducing our carbon footprint and achieved our ambition of becoming net-zero by 2030.

We will be ready to go beyond that, maximising the use of socially sustainable renewables on our sites, increasing habitat and space for nature and reducing waste wherever possible.

We will have worked with others to make strides in understanding and acting on the impacts of climate change adaptation to continually better understand the impacts of extreme weather on ground stability, drainage, risk and potential impacts in mining areas.

Clear research, evidence and understanding will help us to make any changes needed to our approaches and influence the funding required to implement them.

Mine water heat and energy storage will be a key part of heat network policy and implementation with a number of schemes operational – including at city level and as multi-functional schemes with other types of heat which maximises low carbon, stable priced and levelling up benefits across the former coal mining communities of Great Britain.

We will work with a range of partners and seek innovative funding mechanisms to enable this growth.

No iron solids will be landfilled – being used for a range of beneficial uses instead. The water from our mines will be used to support drinking water and industrial provision in water-scarce catchments and we will be actively working with partners at a catchment level to consider coal mines as a core part of the catchment – with flood storage and water use among those considerations.

Our services will help people to make informed decisions, provide expertise and peace of mind. We may provide these globally where relevant and complementary to wider England, Scotland and Wales ambitions.

As coal mining declines across the world we will be well placed to share knowledge, expertise and practical advice on how mining can be decommissioned safely, sustainably and by maximising low carbon opportunities for the future.

We will keep working with partners to use our expertise and skills to reduce the impacts of other types of mining and things beyond our direct remit, building on the work we have done with Welsh Government on tip safety and with other UK government departments to reduce pollution from metal mines.

We will better connect people to their mining history through the provision of information and by making more available the records, pictures and heritage we hold as cost-effectively as possible.

We recognise that the past shapes our 3 nations’ histories and we will work with mining museums and other partners to bring this alive and better tell the story from past to future.

We will do this even when it is hard, acknowledging the mistakes of the past and using this learning to do better.

We will be a more diverse, representative and actively anti-racist organisation that also recognises the importance of levelling up, social mobility and the identities of the coal mining communities in which we have our roots.

Underpinning all this will be our people, systems and ways of working.

We will embrace the opportunity of new technology and continued digital transformation to provide better, more accessible customer service, improved monitoring and operational delivery, make our information easier to connect and engage with and release efficiencies.

We will measure progress in social and environmental terms alongside financial aspects of reporting.

We will work with the UK government to recognise these ambitions, changes and the further evolution of our work through refreshed legislation, which is fit for the future.

We will also seek a change to our name which better reflects the nature of our work and ensures we can keep recruiting talented people and are able to work effectively with environmental and innovative partners in the long term.

5. Deliver for the communities we serve

5.1 Our delivery 2022 to 2025

In our previous business plan we set out to improve our frontline delivery services for our customers, so that we deliver more outcomes and are easier to do business with.

Delivering for the communities we serve sits at the heart of our 10-year vision and last business plan.

We are a 24/7 operational organisation working to keep people, drinking water and the environment safe from the impacts of our mining legacy.

As well as being focused on what we deliver we are strongly committed to how we deliver our services, in line with our values and with empathy throughout.

Between 2022 and 2025 we made strong progress towards our 10-year vision with a focus on customers and communities.

We worked with partners to achieve the best outcomes for the taxpayer and used our knowledge and expertise to help people make informed decisions.

We delivered better services, providing more accessible customer service and systems and more effective front line delivery and 24/7/365 emergency response.

5.2 What we focused on in our previous business plan

Strongly delivering on our core services to keep people, drinking water and the environment safe

We are resolving subsidence claims faster – with more than 90% now resolved within one year to provide peace of mind to people and communities.

We increased our capacity to treat mine water and we can now treat 232 billion litres of mine water per year to prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers or the sea. This is an increase of 15 billion litres per year from 2022.

Increasing our understanding and protection of the environment, drinking water and the sea

We have used our expertise to assess the emerging impacts of recovering mine water from the large ‘super mines’, which closed in the past 10 to 15 years in England.

We’ve established a programme to monitor, assess and consider long term options for the complex and more saline mine water from these mines.

Continuing our progress to further improve our service to our customers

We have strengthened our customer engagement, delivered more accessible services and more clearly recognised that people and communities have differing needs, contexts and perspectives.

We were proud to achieve external recognition of these improvements by gaining ServiceMark accreditation from the Institute of Customer Service.

Using our estate and information to support the regeneration of coalfield areas

We have used our information, services and estate to enable 885,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development for local communities in the former coalfields and supported developers, local authorities and businesses to enable growth and housing in line with the priorities of the UK, Welsh and Scottish governments.

Increasing delivery of safety and environmental services with partners

We have worked closely with partners including Welsh Government, UK government, Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency on an increasing programme of work on coal tip safety and metal mine remediation.

Using our expertise and knowledge we are delivering high quality, value for money services that keep communities safe and protect the environment.

Strengthening our emergency response capabilities

Since our creation in 1994 we have always had a strong technical capability for incident response.

Over the past 3 years we have built on that foundation to increase our resilience and professionalism.

In 2023 we were recognised as a Category 2 emergency response partner under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (amended 2023), enabling us to work more closely and effectively with other emergency response organisations.

Being more visible

We have focused on becoming more visible to customers and partners so that we can provide support and deliver more outcomes together.

This includes implementing community pages for incident response where residents and stakeholders can easily access information, strengthening our engagement with stakeholders and community groups and promoting our emergency contacts and details of our work so people know who to contact for help.

5.3 Progress against our previous business plan

Scorecard outcomes to April 2025: We improve our frontline delivery services for our customers so that we deliver more outcomes and are easier to do business with.

Target (by April 2025)	Progress
We will treat an additional 13 billion litres per year of mine water to prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers or the sea by 2025 – an increase of more than 10% on current volumes (128 billion litres per year)	We treated an additional 13 billion litres of water by 2024 to 2025 compared to our 2022 baseline of 128 billion litres per year and met our target. Learning through the business plan period showed us that a better target is ‘creating the capacity to treat an additional 13 billion litres of mine water by 2025’ as this is not impacted by rainfall which affects the volume of water we need to treat each year. We have measured this new target alongside our original target in our reporting, achieving more than 15 billion across the past 3 years
We will resolve 90% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months	We resolved 91% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months which exceeded our target
We will use our information, services and estate to enable 300,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development for local communities in the former coalfields	Through our planning and permitting services we enabled more than 885,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development to enable growth which exceeded our target
We will achieve ServiceMark accreditation for our service standards from the Institute of Customer Service	We achieved ServiceMark accreditation for our service standards from the Institute of Customer Service and met our target

5.4 Our continued path to our 10-year vision

We will continue to improve our frontline delivery services for our customers so that we deliver better outcomes and are easier to do business with.

• we will continue to provide our essential 24/7/365 emergency response and frontline services to protect life, drinking water and the environment from historic mining legacy based on our remit and responsibilities
• we will keep people safe, provide reassurance and take action when coal mining subsidence occurs – to support this we will continue to work closely with local resilience forums and regional resilience partnerships across mining areas and continue to train and exercise with partners
• we will maintain our focus on enhancing water quality by operating and maintaining our mine water treatment schemes effectively while monitoring wider mine water blocks and taking action to design and build new schemes where they are needed and it is cost beneficial to do so – this includes monitoring, assessing and considering long-term options for managing the recovering mine water from the English deep super mines which are complex and more saline
• we will work in partnership to maximise efficient and effective delivery, value for money and increase the outcomes that can be delivered for communities – this includes large collaborations such as delivery of our metal mines programme with Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency, as well as smaller projects like working with local volunteer groups on nature recovery
• we will continue to keep our customers and communities at the heart of what we do, treating customers with empathy and as individuals and recognising the different context and needs of different communities
• we will meet our customer standards, take further action to be accessible and easier to do business with and continue to benchmark our services
• we will enable safe growth and development by providing proportionate, efficient and effective services
• we will more pre-application consultations to support developers to solve complex challenges in coalfield areas and develop further standing advice to ensure our time is focused where we can make the most difference for public safety
• we will continue to seek feedback on our permitting and licensing work and ensure that we act in line with the Regulators’ Code
• we will maximise opportunities to deliver social and environmental value alongside value for the taxpayer in all of our frontline delivery – this includes making the most of our property and estate, repurposing land where we can support community benefit alongside operational delivery and working with partners to maximise outcomes such as public access and flood risk management
• we will engage with stakeholders and community groups to ensure that our projects are informed by local communities
• we will provide clear, effective information about our work and ensure opportunities for engagement and feedback
• we will work to embed our name change and maximise the opportunities from this across the breadth of the work we do across the 3 nations we serve
• we will use systems, technology and AI effectively to improve productivity, understanding and knowledge and support our customer delivery

5.5 How we will know we are succeeding

Scorecard outcomes to April 2028: We will continue to improve our frontline delivery services for our customers so that we deliver better outcomes and are easier to do business with.

We will:

• take action to protect the drinking water supply of a further 2,400 people (650,000 in total) and improve the water quality of an additional 100km of rivers and streams (350km overall)
• continue to resolve 90% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months
• further develop our understanding of the scale and complexity of the risk from the recovering mine water from the English super mines, undertaking research and work with partners to determine appropriate solutions for saline mine water including new technology, water use and large infrastructure options
• use our information, services and expertise to support economic growth through Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and enable 800,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development, including 50,000 new homes in communities on the former coalfields
• improve our customer service response times, uphold our ServiceMark accreditation and refine systems and processes through feedback to improve our delivery

View our case study for deliver for the communities we serve.

6. Ensure sustainability

6.1 Our delivery 2022 to 2025

In our last business plan we set out to make further clear progress on our journey to achieve net zero carbon by 2030 and to deliver wider environmental and social aspects of sustainability.

Delivering sustainably is key to our delivery and can help us be more efficient and effective and deliver better value for money.

It is a key theme of our 10-year vision and last business plan, which are clear that we seek to deliver social and environmental value alongside value for the taxpayer through our work.

Our ambitions are deliberately stretching and encourage us to be ambitious in what we can achieve.

We have made good progress, worked with others and have taken learning where our aspirations are challenging.

In 2023 we published our 2023 to 2026 sustainability plan, which includes the following priorities:

• reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by increasing our use of renewable energy, improving our baseline data, reducing supply chain emissions especially from construction and developing clear actions so that we are ready to go to net zero and beyond – this includes reducing supply chain emissions especially from construction
• being nature positive by supporting nature recovery on our sites to increase biodiversity
• supporting the circular economy by reducing the amount of high impact materials we use and retaining materials in circulation to help reduce waste
• adapting to impacts of climate change and becoming climate resilient by assessing and adapting to the impacts of climate change on our operations, staff and estate
• enabling social value by providing greater value to people and communities by thoughtful engagement and action
• empowering sustainable change and delivering our priorities by empowering our people and embedding sustainability into all we do

6.2 What we focused on during our previous business plan

Taking action and learning on reducing emissions

We cut greenhouse gas emissions from our estate, travel, and operations by 27% compared to our 2017 to 18 baseline (which was below our ambition).

This included transitioning 97% of our vehicle fleet to ultra-low emission vehicles.

Challenges included delays in solar panel procurement to consider ethical and environmental factors and wetter weather increasing mine water pumping needs.

This will be prioritised for further action during 2025 to 2028.

Increasing our understanding of climate change and nature recovery across our estate

We’ve made progress considering the impacts of climate change and the priorities for adaptation across our work.

We published our nature recovery plan, completed Geographic Information System (GIS) habitat mapping at 82 mine water treatment schemes, detailed mapping at 22 schemes and 6 tip sites, and developed 2 management plans.

This helps prioritise efforts for nature recovery and collaboration for maximum outcomes.

Working with our supply chain to increase environmental and social value

We improved reporting and data tracking of raw materials and carbon to enhance decision-making in design and construction, reduce environmental impacts, and save money.

We’ve embedded social value into our procurement and are working with our supply chain to maximise social value, community engagement and community benefit from our work.

Improved data collection and reporting across our estate and reducing our impact

We established comprehensive data collection and reporting methods across our offices and sites, in line with our Greening Government Commitments.

This will increase the transparency and accountability of our sustainability work.

We’ve reduced office waste to landfill from 69% to less than 1% and reduced office water use by 44% from our baseline, despite increases in headcount and office working during this time.

6.3 Progress against our previous business plan

Scorecard outcomes to April 2025: Make further clear progress on our journey to achieve net zero carbon by 2030 and to deliver wider environmental and social aspects of sustainability.

Target (by April 2025)	Progress
We will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our estate, operations and travel by 65% from our 2017 to 2018 baseline	We have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from our estate, operations and travel by 27% from our 2017 to 18 baseline and have not achieved our 2025 target. The target has been impacted by the electric grid becoming more carbon intensive and challenges we have faced with ethical solar panel procurement. We have worked with UK government to resolve this and will be rolling out the next phase of solar panel installation from summer 2025
We will implement integrated reporting that uses evidence-based and measured targets to show our commitment and progress on our sustainability goals	We have increasingly built social and economic value into our business cases, decision making and reporting alongside value for the taxpayer. We have delivered a number of practical examples of additional social value and benefit in local communities as shown in our operational case studies and embedded it in our procurement. We have begun clearer measurement through our programmes. Our 2025 target has been partially met
We will understand and recognise the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on our estate and operations with a clearly defined adaptation plan	We have discussed and agreed initial, high level adaptation considerations for our organisation but have delayed our adaptation plan until 2026 to allow us to undertake more work and engagement with partners. Our 2025 target has been partially met
We will have a nature recovery plan and will demonstrate how our estate and operations are being optimised for nature’s recovery	We have developed a nature recovery plan which delivers on the ‘being nature positive’ priorities of our 2023 to 2026 sustainability plan and have met our 2025 target

6.4 Our continued path to our 10-year vision

We will further embed sustainability across our work to deliver positive benefit for communities and improve efficiency and value for money.

• we will deliver the priorities in our 2023 to 2026 sustainability plan and develop our 2026 to 2029 plan, informed by the UK government Greening Government Commitments and the priorities of the Welsh and Scottish governments
• we will take learning from the past 3 years to inform further action on reducing emissions, rollout our renewables plan and accelerate progress to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our energy costs and work towards our ambition to become net zero by 2030
• we will increase our understanding of climate change and the priorities for adaptation across our work to ensure we can be resilient to the impacts of the increasing extreme weather events and new norms that will come with them
• we will publish our adaptation plan to explain our understanding of the impacts and any changes needed in our work
• we will continue to embed social value across the business and work with our supply chain to maximise social value, community engagement and community benefit from our work
• we will deliver our 2024 to 2026 Nature Recovery Plan and develop the priorities beyond that in line with our sustainability plan – our ambitions are long term and involve working with partners and communities in an iterative way, and we will learn and evolve as we progress
• we will make clear progress against the 2025 to 2030 Greening Government Commitments by further reducing emissions, waste and water use across our business to reduce our impact on the environment and our costs in these areas – this links closely to our priorities in our ‘work with others to create value’ theme by increasing opportunities for the re-use and recycling of ochre wastes, growing markets for products and working on a catchment basis with others to sustainably manage water
• we will continue to support and upskill our people and provide effective tools, systems and AI to help them make effective and efficient decisions which deliver social and environmental value alongside value for the taxpayer
• we will work closely in partnership to share learning and learn from others
• we will share our progress, our successes and our challenges transparently to demonstrate our progress and enable learning across the sector

6.5 How we will know we are succeeding

Scorecard outcomes to April 2028: We will further embed sustainability across our work to deliver positive benefit for communities and improve efficiency and value for money.

We will:

• accelerate our renewable energy programme, delivering measures at a minimum of 2 sites per year as part of our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% from our 2017 to 18 baseline (currently included in our sustainability plan commitment until new Greening Government Commitments figures are available)
• publish our climate adaptation plan and progress the actions to improve resilience and adaptation to climate risks and impacts
• continue to deliver our nature recovery programme, building on initial benchmarking to develop practical plans on a prioritised basis across our estate and take action by embedding nature-friendly management practices and working with partners to maximise the natural assets of our estate in an efficient way
• develop, implement and report on social value targets across the work we do Make clear progress against the 2025 to 2030 Greening Government Commitments to reduce our impact on the environment and our costs in these areas

View our case study for ensure sustainability.

7. Work with others to create value

7.1 Our delivery 2022 to 2025

In our previous business plan we set out to generate more value and deliver wider environmental and social benefit from our assets, services and work.

It is vital to deliver value for the taxpayer alongside opportunities for social and environmental value, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.

This includes seeking innovation, developing and selling products, and delivering services for the public and private sectors to provide good value and mitigate costs for the taxpayer.

Between 2022 and 2025, we collaborated with partners from commercial, environmental, and government sectors to develop value outcomes and support government objectives like safe growth, development, regeneration and housing.

7.2 What we focused on in our previous business plan

Working with Gateshead Council to deliver the first large mine water heat network in GB

The Gateshead scheme, one of Europe’s largest, uses mine water as its heat source, delivering cost and carbon savings for homes, businesses, and council buildings on the network.

It follows the pioneering private sector scheme in Durham and informs future projects across Great Britain.

Developing an ochre product for the anaerobic digestion market

Working in partnership we developed our first ochre product for this market which supports corrosion protection and odour reduction in anaerobic digestion plants and replaces ferric chemicals currently exported from Europe.

This circular economy initiative delivers income, reduces disposal costs, and saves carbon.

Publishing opportunity frameworks for mine heat and byproducts

These 2024 to 2027 frameworks summarise our opportunities and make it easier for public and private sector organisations to engage with us.

They show what has already been delivered and how we can work together to deliver innovative and profitable partnerships across Great Britain.

Strengthening key relationships with partners and across government

We worked with a range of partners across England, Scotland and Wales and with government to increase understanding, support policy and bring partnerships together to enable mine water heat.

This includes working with Deloitte, who produced an important report on mainstreaming mine water heat which is clear on the opportunities and the steps that would help investors for future schemes.

We co-organised the annual ‘Mine Water Energy Symposium’ with British Geological Survey (BGS), IEA Geothermal and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to bring together researchers, government, practitioners, developers and local authorities.

Working with communities and financial lenders to enable confident conveyancing on the coalfield

We worked with financial lenders and partners including the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to support confidence in lending and insuring homes on the coalfield.

We continue to work with homeowners, house buyers, estate agents and developers to support confident conveyancing, safe growth and housing development across coalfield areas.

Working in partnership on research and development

We worked with a range of partners including BGS, University of Strathclyde, Durham Energy Institute and Edinburgh University to research mine water heating, cooling and storage, and developed a Living Lab in Gateshead to study interactions between live mine water heat schemes and provide open access data to grow understanding in the sector.

Working with partners across the water sector on a catchment basis

We worked with regulators, water companies and partners to explore opportunities at a catchment level to balance the needs of people and the environment in water scarce areas and demonstrate the role mine water can play.

This is relevant to our work to find innovative solutions for complex and saline mine water and is a key aspect of our super mines and salinity programme. This work will continue in the years ahead.

7.3 Progress against our previous business plan

Scorecard outcomes to April 2025: We will generate more value and deliver wider environmental and social benefit from our assets, services and work.

Target (by April 2025)	Progress
We will influence and enable 4 large operational mine water heat schemes across Great Britain	We enabled 3 large mine water heat schemes, partially meeting our 2025 target. Alongside this we’ve increased understanding and visibility, enabled future opportunities, developed opportunity maps in Wales for Welsh Government and for 10 cities in England for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and undertaken work to inform policy and support investors for heat networks
We will re-use or recycle 95% of the iron ochre and iron solids generated from our mine water treatment schemes to prevent disposal in landfill	Less than 5% of the iron ochre and iron solids we have generated have gone to landfill. We have met our 2025 target
We will increase our service delivery to partners by 30% from our 2021 to 2022 baseline of £2.49 million/year	We have increased our service delivery to partners by more than 50% from our 2021 to 2022 baseline. We have exceeded our 2025 target
We will assist the lending industry in making faster decisions for home buyers on the coalfields	We have a programme of active engagement with key lending organisations, mortgage lenders, surveyors and estate agencies to provide knowledge of our work and support confidence in the coalfield housing market. We work with lending institutions and surveyors to help develop the best methods to access our data and provide interpretive services to help them make informed lending decisions. We have met our 2025 target

7.4 Our continued path to our 10-year vision

We will generate more value for the taxpayer and deliver wider social and environmental value from our assets, services and work.

• we will enable mine water heat schemes across Great Britain to increase the number of homes and businesses heated in this way
• we will support and encourage new approaches including large space heating and closed loop schemes alongside borehole and treatment scheme adjacent schemes and promote cooling opportunities to support data centre investments and other large developments
• we will continue to provide open access data and learning from our Living Lab project, work in partnership and support research and development that aligns with our mine water framework outcomes – for example heat storage opportunities within mining blocks
• we will maintain, enhance and develop new connections with researchers and academics to support evidence-based decision making across the sector
• we will keep working with government, public and private sector colleagues to inform heat policy and incentives, seek feedback on our engagement and ensure we are easy to do business with
• we will continue to produce guidance and support and maximise awareness through media engagement, social media, webinars and relevant events, including the Mine Water Energy Symposium and International Mine Water Association conference.
• we will grow the market for ochre products, working with a range of partners, organisations and suppliers who complement the skills, knowledge and values we hold
• we will consider options for ochre with more complex chemistry and salinity, understand the impacts of climate adaptation on our schemes and ways of working and progress understanding of practical and investment considerations that would help increase the scale and pace of our ochre products and opportunities
• we will build on discussions with regulators and the water sector to progress opportunities in water scarce areas – this links to the work in our super mines and salinity programme and our work on climate adaptation
• we will consider and assess new areas of innovation, efficiency and value creation beyond those currently in implementation which can be progressed for delivery in future years
• we will deliver the priorities in our 2024 to 2027 mine water and by-product frameworks and deliver broader plans beyond them, informed by the industry, research and development and our progress and knowledge
• we will work with government and industry bodies to support digital property transactions and support confident conveyancing, housing development and safe growth on the coalfield
• we will continue to listen to customers, refine our processes and work with partners where possible to join up licensing and permitting processes and maximise pace and flexibility for the applicant in line with the regulators code

7.5 How we will know we are succeeding

Scorecard outcomes to April 2028: We will generate more value for the taxpayer and deliver wider social and environmental value from our assets, services and work.

We will:

• influence and enable 3 more large operational mine water heat schemes across Great Britain and encourage smaller schemes and new technologies
• increase our service delivery to partners by 30% from our 2024 to 2025 baseline of £5.3 million per year
• reuse or recycle the iron ochre and iron solids generated from our mine water treatment schemes to ensure that less than 3% goes to landfill
• deliver the commitments in our mine water heat and by-product opportunity frameworks
• evolve our services and partnerships, in support of government policy, to continue to provide confidence to those involved with buying and selling homes, land and property in coalfield areas

View our case study for work with others to create value.

8. Create a great place to work

8.1 Our delivery 2022 to 2025

In our previous business plan we set out to be an employer of choice where our people feel they can belong.

We have an inclusive culture with a strong focus on wellbeing, learning and development.

We take pride in delivering important work for the communities we serve. Our people are key to our delivery across Great Britain.

We work with a wide range of customers, communities, partners and supply chain contractors to deliver our work and enable the priorities of the UK government, Welsh Government and Scottish Government.

This includes the UK government priorities on safe growth and development, economic growth and making the UK a clean energy superpower.

To do this well we need a diverse workforce with a range of technical skills and a mix of experience and new perspectives to ensure we can keep taking practical action on the ground.

We ensure that we have people with the skills, confidence and empathy to support communities and solve the complex problems that we face on a 24/7/365 basis.

8.2 What we focused on in our previous business plan

Enabling leadership and learning

We developed leadership and technical skills across our workforce with a focus on efficient and effective delivery for the communities we serve and growing our own skills where they are hard to recruit externally.

Our leadership programme enabled 35% of participants to advance into new roles within 6 months of the programme.

Our 2024 people survey showed that 86% of colleagues believe they have access to the right learning and development and 71% believe this has improved their knowledge and performance.

Ensuring safety, wellbeing and inclusion

We continued to ensure that health, safety and wellbeing is embedded across our organisation and our supply chain.

In 2025 we achieved a 5 star rating from the British Safety Council Occupational Health and Safety Audit.

We delivered the priorities of our 2021 to 2024 diversity and inclusion plan and our 2022 to 2025 anti-racism plan and improved representation across our workforce.

To support our commitment to social mobility and providing opportunities for communities on the former coalfields, we expanded our work experience and early careers engagement with local schools and developed paid internship programmes and apprenticeships.

Roughly 50% of our offers through this period have been to those with a historical family connection to mining.

Encouraging engagement and employee experience

Our 2024 people survey achieved an 86% response rate, with a high colleague engagement score of 75% (up from 67% in 2022).

This shows that our people are engaged, speak positively about us, want to continue working with us and are willing to go above and beyond to deliver their roles.

We have continued to listen and take action to value, support, engage with and empower our people.

Engaged colleagues deliver great customer service and are flexible in helping us to respond and deliver essential emergency response 24/7/365.

Delivering modern and dynamic ways of working

We transformed our recruitment approach by using modern systems and tools to drive efficiency and delivered savings from advertising and using third-party providers while increasing candidate accessibility and reach.

We aligned with the Government Campus, which allows efficient, value for money access to learning and development across the public sector and has allowed us to reduce bespoke training packages.

Our Core Learning management system pulls learning into one place and allows efficient tracking and reporting.

Across the business we have developed policies on AI use, rolled out new tools and systems and undertaken pilots to ensure colleagues can inform our effective adoption of AI and new technologies across the organisation.

This links closely to our Fit for the Future theme, which has delivered further improvements to IT, systems and governance across the organisation. These have been shaped, informed and developed through colleague feedback to improve productivity and our service to the customer.

8.3 Progress against our previous business plan

Scorecard outcomes to April 2025: We will be an employer of choice where our people feel they can belong. We’ll have an inclusive culture with a strong focus on wellbeing, learning and development. We take pride in delivering important work for the communities we serve and live our values.

Target (by April 2025)	Progress
We will make demonstrable progress towards our workforce being more reflective of the diversity of the communities we serve across Great Britain	We made demonstrable progress in delivering the actions in our 2021 to 2024 diversity and inclusion plan and our 2022 to 2025 anti-racism plan and have met our 2025 target
We will support levelling up by taking action to improve social mobility and providing apprenticeships for individuals who live on the coalfield and have a family connection to mining	We developed and implemented apprenticeship and work experience programmes and have taken practical action to consider social mobility and provide opportunities for individuals who live on the coalfield and/or have a family connection to mining. We have delivered our 2025 target
We will achieve a 5-star rating in the British Safety Council 5 Star Health, Safety and Wellbeing Audit	We benchmarked our health, safety and wellbeing approach using the British Safety Council Occupational Health and Safety Audit and achieved a 5-star
rating. We have met our 2025 target
We will increase our employee survey engagement score by 10% against the 2019 benchmark of 67%	We achieved a 75% colleague engagement score in our 2024 people survey and have exceeded our 2025 target

8.4 Our continued path to our 10-year vision

We will be an employer of choice with great people who feel empowered, use our values to inform their work, and take real pride in delivering the essential and complex work we do for the communities we serve.

• we will attract and retain great people to ensure we can effectively and efficiently deliver our essential work to protect life, protect drinking water and protect the environment across Great Britain – to do this well we need a diverse workforce with a range of technical skills and a mix of experience and new perspectives to ensure we can keep taking practical action on the ground and be innovative and effective in finding new and better ways to deliver
• we’ll maximise the benefits of our name change, keep our hiring and on boarding processes simple and efficient and work within the public sector framework to provide a competitive reward and recognition package
• we will support leaders to value, empower and develop their people and ensure that we remain a great place to work for everyone by delivering the priorities in our 2025 to 2028 inclusion plan.
• we will develop our people to ensure they have the skills and motivation to tackle the complex operational challenges we face and identify new opportunities, efficiencies and improved ways of doing things
• we will ‘grow our own’ where we know it is challenging to recruit professional skills externally and use paid internships and apprenticeships to support this approach
• we will provide skills and opportunities through learning and development, professional development, accreditation and apprenticeships – we’ll use partnerships and work with our supply chain where this is most effective
• we will continue to focus on leadership and customer skills alongside technical development as we know all of these are essential to delivering for the communities we serve
• we will prioritise health, safety and wellbeing to protect the public, our colleagues and our supply chain from the range of risks that we manage daily and ensure we continue to deliver a safe and effective workplace – our approach will be informed by our learning and by best practice from partners, our supply chain, regulators and advisory bodies
• we will continue to embed behavioural safety to ensure we keep a clear focus on safety and recognise the importance of health and wellbeing and the interconnectedness of all 3 aspects
• we will deliver the priorities in our 2025 to 2028 health, safety and wellbeing plan
• we will promote the benefits of new tools, systems and AI, working in close alignment with our Fit for the Future theme – this is a core part of our colleague engagement, empowerment and experience and builds on feedback from our people which has informed this plan
• we want our colleagues to feel they belong here, enjoy their work, and bring their best self to work because engaged and motivated people are essential for delivering creative solutions which are effective and efficient for the communities we serve and the taxpayer
• we’ll keep listening and taking action to ensure we are a great place to work for everyone and can effectively deliver essential work for mining communities across Great Britain

8.5 How we will know we are succeeding

Scorecard outcomes to April 2028: We will be an employer of choice with great people who feel empowered, use our values to inform their work, and take real pride in delivering the essential and complex work we do for the communities we serve.

We will:

• continue to make demonstrable progress in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce reflective of the communities we serve across Great Britain, improving social mobility and providing opportunities for individuals who live in mining communities
• provide opportunities for our colleagues to grow and develop their skills and expertise including support for professional development, formal accreditation and apprenticeships
• demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of the public, our colleagues and our partners and supply chain through external benchmarking
• strive to maintain an employee survey engagement score of more than 70%

View our case study for create a great place to work.

9. Make us fit for the future

9.1 Our delivery 2022 to 2025

In our last business plan we set out to develop modern, resilient systems and processes that are fit for the future, support our people and make it easier for our customers and partners to do business with us.

Our ambitious plan needed to be enabled through effective and customer-focused systems and approaches which support our priorities efficiently and well.

We have made good progress, taken learnings and set strong foundations to build on. We have opportunity to do much more.

9.2 What we focused on in our previous business plan

Making our systems and processes more resilient

We have created resilient, secure and future proof systems by moving our main and most complex bespoke business systems to the cloud alongside most of our supporting systems.

Delivering better services for our customers

We have refreshed our approach to user needs by systematically capturing customer feedback that enables us to improve customer experience.

We have refreshed and brought our on-line map viewer in house and included new mine heat data so that it is even more useful to our customers.

Our collaboration with BGS to develop a joined up service for delivering our mine plans on-line will make it is easier for our customers to understand which plans they want to view and to order them remotely.

Developing collaborative tools for our people, customers and partners

We have improved our office meeting rooms and collaborative spaces and embedded Microsoft 365 and associated tools so that our people can work together effectively wherever they are.

Implementing a stakeholder relationship management solution across some of our key programmes has meant we can work even more effectively with our partners and customers.

Other improvements include the implementation of an applicant tracking system that has improved both business efficiency and candidate experiences through our recruitment processes which has helped us effectively attract more great, skilled people to the organisation.

Modernising our data and information

We have published our 2024 to 2027 data and information plan and are making good progress against the priorities which helps us create more value from our data to improve our work, support the work of partners and help our customers and the wider public.

All of this has been underpinned by our work to further develop our governance frameworks to support our ambitious plans and this work will continue to enable our people to work efficiently within clear frameworks.

In our previous business plan we recognised that our work would also be underpinned by more clearly embedding our programme office approach into all projects to improve planning, delivery, benefits and efficiency.

We have made good progress and we will continue to deliver our approach through the 2025 to 2028 business plan period.

9.3 Progress against our previous business plan

Scorecard outcomes to April 2025: We will develop modern, resilient systems and processes that are fit for the future, support our people and make it easier for our customers and partners to do business with us.

Target (by April 2025)	Progress
We will update 100% of our strategic IT systems and run them in the cloud	We took learning through this work and re-phased the programme where it would be more efficient not to migrate a few back office systems – for example where we are moving to a new supplier or system and it would be inefficient to migrate a system that will shortly be redundant. This means that we have migrated 90% of our systems to the cloud and partially met our 2025 target
We will make our digital services and information more accessible, relevant and with increased self-serve options – 100% of services will be digital by default and 100% of our new transactional systems will follow GOV.UK service and design standards	We took learning through this work and listened to feedback from customers and colleagues which showed us that it is most cost effective and efficient to focus on systems and services that matter most to our digital customers and consider and protect other ways that some customers prefer to engage with us. This means that 83% of our services are now digital by default and that our 365/24/7 phone line will remain the primary method of logging incidents and getting emergency support and response. 100% of our new transactional systems will follow GOV.UK standards. Our 2025 target has been partially met
We will make demonstrable progress on implementing systems that allow simpler, improved collaboration within the organisation and with partners	We have introduced and embedded new productivity tools, including a suite of Microsoft 365 products, to improve collaboration between colleagues and with partners. We have delivered our 2025 target
We will make demonstrable progress in improving our findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) data self-assessment ratings	We published a 2024 to 2027 data and information plan, which describes how we are modernising and developing access to our data and information and continue to improve our FAIR assessment ratings for the benefit of our customers. We have delivered our 2025 target

9.4 Our continued path to our 10-year vision

We will continue to develop modern, resilient processes and systems that are fit for the future. These will support our people to work more efficiently and effectively to deliver for the communities we serve.

• we will make it easier for our people to collaborate and deliver for our customers through integrated systems and streamlined processes that are simpler to understand, promote good governance and insight to manage our increasingly complex organisation
• we will focus on technologies such as AI, that allow us to work smarter and be more efficient at delivering services – colleagues will be connected, informed, and able to share experiences and information more effectively across the organisation
• we will continue our development of our portfolio, project, programme, and commercial management practices and work together to get delivery right first time.
• we will provide consistent and effective guidance, frameworks and skills development for our people and support them to feel empowered to drive effective delivery.
• we will enable proportionate planning, governance and assurance to enable increased efficiency and we will aim to be a client of choice with a supply chain aligned to our values and approach
• we will focus on increasing efficiency and value for money and reducing delivery cost whilst supporting our sustainability goals
• we will create better services for our customers by understanding customer needs through ongoing engagement and aiming for higher reported levels of satisfaction with our services
• our services will be digital by default where appropriate, designed around customer needs and delivered in a way that enables simpler interactions
• we will provide improved access to historical mining records, pictures and heritage to better connect people and communities to their mining history
• we will deliver the priorities in our 2024 to 2027 data and information plan and continue to work with others, enable data driven innovation and work to realise greater economic, social and environmental value from our data and information – this will support safe growth and development, enable private sector opportunity and contribute to economic growth across Great Britain

9.5 How we will know we are succeeding

Scorecard Outcomes to April 2028: We will continue to develop modern, resilient processes and systems that are fit for the future. These will support our people to work more efficiently and effectively to deliver for the communities we serve.

We will:

• empower our people to deliver more efficiently through streamlined processes and smarter use of technology and AI
• drive more efficient and effective delivery by continuing to embed our approach to portfolio, programme and project management
• improve and develop new digital services around user needs, leading to higher levels of satisfaction and positive customer experiences
• deliver our 2024 to 2027 data and information plan, modernising and improving access to our data to support growth and enable wider outcomes for the environment and for the communities we serve

View our case study for make us fit for the future.