Water is best managed at a regional level, and within the North East we’re working with The Rivers Trust to create a regional hub to develop improvements for water quality and the wider environment.
We’ve created the North East Catchments Hub, a first for the industry, and with it comes three full time roles covering the Tyne, Wear and Tees river catchments, bringing together the best local, regional and national expertise to benefit our region.
Those three roles, plus a part-time managerial role, will help us and our partners to invest effectively in improvements to watercourses and the wider environment.
By working in partnership, with the Catchments Hub as the coordinating presence, we can do more than any individual organisation can do alone, by combining expertise and best practice, and considering alternative, sustainable ways to invest for environmental benefit.
In the past year, we have invested around £300,000 in the Catchments Hub, identifying eight catchment and nature-based schemes which have been put forward for inclusion in our 2025-30 Business Plan.
The catchment and nature-based solutions have multiple benefits. By focusing on cross-catchment partnership working, rather than end-of-pipe schemes at Sewage Treatment Works, we can save an estimated £51.7m, helping keep customer bills down, and also minimise our carbon and climate impacts while delivering substantial water quality benefits.