Integrated Water Management July newsletter 2026

Welcome to our Environment Agency Oxford to Cambridge team's July newsletter

Please find below the latest updates and news regarding our Integrated Water Management Programme. Thank you for your continued interest and support in our work. If you have any questions regarding the programme or any of our projects, please contact the team on OX.Cam@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Completed projects

Our Future Water Demand project is now live on the hub

Working with the Environment Agency’s Water Resources Security of Supply team, this project developed sector-specific forecasting approaches to support planners to better anticipate water demand in fast-growing sectors. The insights and lessons learned informed the Environment Agency-led guidance for Water Resource Management Plan 2029.

As part of this project, we also carried out 2 further strands of work improving understanding of data centre water use and demand characteristics, and exploring how AI could be used to identify planning applications with the potential to impact future water demand.

The project is now live on our hub, please check out the projects key messages and the final report.

Ongoing projects

Joining up Drainage, Wastewater and Surface Water

Water planning in England involves many organisations, plans and legal duties, which makes it complex and difficult to join up. Lead Local Flood Authorities and Water and Sewerage Companies both play important roles in managing surface water, drainage and water quality. However, planning and delivery can be fragmented, in some case hindering collaborative action and investment. We explored ways to join-up Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans and surface water flood risk planning. We worked with partners in West Northamptonshire as a case study, to develop a collaborative approach to water planning. You can access the full project report and the collaborative approach, in our interactive PDF here.

We are now working on a non-technical summary and key messages to help share the project learning and embed the outputs. We will be adding these to our Integrated Water Management Hub when they are ready.

Water Story of the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor

The Water Story provides a clear and accessible summary of the important role water plays in supporting sustainable growth across the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor. We’ve worked closely with colleagues across the Environment Agency, the Defra group and a range of partners across the water sector. It aims to establish a shared understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing water across the Corridor. It is aimed at senior leaders, including from the Environment Agency, Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), water companies, Natural England, MPs and ministers, while also being accessible to a wider audience.

We aim to publish the Water Story very soon, so keep an eye out for it in our resources section.