The Greater Cambridge water crisis: We need a ministerial round-table now, says MP Pippa Heylings

Opinion | Pippa Heylings, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire, writes for the Cambridge Independent

Another heatwave and a continuous run of record-breaking hottest days underline a critical issue: Greater Cambridge faces an urgent water shortage and sewage capacity crisis.

Despite being one of the most water-stressed regions in the UK, the area recently saw a significant increase in water usage, even after a drought was declared in 2022 without a corresponding hosepipe ban. We must learn from this. This trend is unsustainable, especially with the alarming forecast from the Environment Agency: a national deficit of five billion litres of water per day by 2055, with the East of England alone facing a deficit of 680 million litres per day.

The beautiful green fields, rivers and chalk streams of Greater Cambridge hide a concerning truth. The region receives minimal rainfall, and its water supply heavily relies on groundwater from chalk aquifers in South Cambridgeshire.

This dependence is severely impacting precious chalk streams like the Rivers Mel, Rhee, Shep, Granta, Cam, Fulbourn and Wilbraham. Many of these streams are now artificially sustained because groundwater is no longer naturally replenishing them, masking the worrying reality. Current demand is already stretching our region’s water resources to breaking point.

Greater Cambridge is a vital hub for health research, science and innovation, attracting significant government growth initiatives. While this fuels the local economy, it also drives demand for more homes, offices and lab space. The draft Local Plan proposes 44,100 new homes by 2041, a substantial increase given the current 122,000 homes in the region. This ambitious growth intensifies the strain on basic services. However, it's our water supply and capacity to manage sewage from these new homes that presents the most critical challenge.

Water companies face restrictions on how open they can be about their capacity to connect new developments. Anglian Water recently objected to commercial developments because it cannot manage the sewage from new projects - a huge warning that without capacity, sewage ends up in our rivers and streams. T

The Environment Agency has also objected to certain housing developments in Greater Cambridge due to concerns about the region’s water supply. The Cambridge Water Scarcity Group was formed to help address the water supply challenge, bringing together key agencies and water companies. The work of this group must continue, with an urgent focus on sewage treatment capacity.

A new Fens reservoir, a joint venture between Anglian Water and Cambridge Water, is planned but won't be ready until the mid-to-late 2030s. In the meantime, we'll rely on water transfers from Grafham Water, but even this stop-gap solution has its own complexities. Crucially, both the reservoir and water transfers are primarily intended to meet the demands of the ambitious housebuilding in the draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan - and not the additional homes the Cambridge Growth Company is tasked with delivering.

We can no longer ignore this. We need to call a ministerial roundtable to address the infrastructure needs ahead of more development. I am also calling for the Water Scarcity Group to urgently address the additional water demand and the sewage capacity crisis already upon us.

If we don't secure enough water, we risk not only irreversible environmental damage to our beloved chalk streams and the nature and wildlife that depend upon them, but this will also be a barrier to building the homes we need. We must confront a pressing reality: our region faces a deepening crisis of water availability and sewage capacity.

For five years, I've campaigned on the twin crises of drinking water and sewage management. We're seeing the results of the previous Conservative government's failure to rein in water companies and ensure they invest in necessary infrastructure. We urgently need a joined-up approach and scaled-up investment.

The government will soon announce plans for “new towns and Cambridge”. These cannot be imposed without serious infrastructure planning and a clear understanding of what is and isn't possible.

Just in my meeting this week with the chair of the Cambridge Growth Company, I called for a ministerial roundtable, and an urgent update from both the Cambridge Growth Company and the Water Scarcity Group on how we can work together to solve this very serious challenge.