To help us deliver our long-term vision, we’ve developed a number of ambitions – for the services we deliver, to protect the environment, for our customers and communities, and for our business.
Use the interactive tool to read our long-term vision:
You can also read some key points from the document below, view a PDF version, find out more about South Staffordshire PLC (the parent company of Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water), and provide feedback.
Quick links:
Our vision to 2050
We have an ambitious, long-term vision for our business that aims to demonstrate our value to our customers and society, and our commitment to protecting and enhancing the environment. To deliver this vision, we are focusing on the following themes.
Please click on each theme to find out more:
This means keeping bills affordable, using smart data to identify customers who may be struggling to pay their bills, and offering the right levels of help and support to all customers who need it.
This means taking less water from the environment, including the rare chalk stream habitats in our Cambridge region. It also means working with farmers and landowners to improve water quality, and creating or enhancing habitats that support a wide range of plants and wildlife.
This means encouraging sustainable practices within our business and our supply chain. It includes using renewable energy, having a fully electric vehicle fleet, and making sure our network of treatment works, pipes and pumping stations can withstand extreme weather events.
This means developing new water sources, such as the Fens reservoir with Anglian Water in our Cambridge region. It also means making the most of our existing water sources and working with developers to encourage more water efficiency, such as water recycling in every home.
This means taking more advantage of green or sustainable financing initiatives, while continuing to always meet our regulatory and financial obligations.
At the same time, we will take into account the changing expectations of our customers and regulators over time. This could mean placing more emphasis on one theme over another to reflect a change in circumstances, for example. Key to this remains the need for us to understand fully our customers’ priorities, and to be fully embedded at the heart of all the communities we serve.
Where we are nowPlease click on the image below to enlarge:
Where we will be in 2050Please click on the image below to enlarge:
Our customers' prioritiesOur vision is based on delivering the priorities our customers and stakeholders have told us about through our ongoing engagement with them. These include the following priorities.
Please click on each priority to find out more:
Providing high-quality water and regular information about the health of the sources from where we take our supplies. This includes underground water sources (‘aquifers’), reservoirs and rivers.
Running a sustainable business and placing a greater focus on environmental responsibility. This includes, for example, generating energy from our own sites.
Delivering an efficient customer service. This includes providing accurate bills that are easy to understand and making sure the right support is available to customers who may need extra help.
Always delivering water at the right pressure, now and in the future.
Making the best use of our water resources to address the impact of climate change. This includes reducing leakage, investing in rainwater harvesting technologies and working with other water companies to share supplies.
...And to do all this while keeping water bills affordable for all our customers.
There are also some other areas where customers and stakeholders have differing views on how far they want us to go as a water company.
You can find out more about these priorities in our long-term plan, 'Looking to the future'.
Our long-term ambitionsOur business plan for each of the five years from 2020 to 2025 focuses on delivering five key outcomes that reflect the areas where our customers told us they want to hold us to account. We believe these still apply to our long-term plans. So we have developed the following ambition statements, which will help us to deliver our vision for 2050.
Delivering excellent service
We will use cutting-edge technology and ensure the infrastructure is in place so that customers always receive resilient, high-quality water supplies.
We will:
- use innovative, sector leading treatment technology to push the boundaries of water quality improvement
- look at ways to reduce our resilience over time on the chemicals we use in our treatment processes
- follow all new regulatory and legal requirements to make sure the water we supply is always of the highest quality.
We will:
- invest in new technology that can predict when pipes might burst and other assets might fail
- install smart meters to give customers more control over when and where they use water - at home and at work
- expand the capacity of our data systems, helping us to monitor our pipes and other assets effectively.
We will:
- always use evidence-based 'no regret' investment options for our assets that represent customers' best interests, where they are available
- develop plans that can adapt to changing circumstances and that demonstrate our accountability to customers.
"The way I see it is that the water quality needs improving and these new investments will make that happen"
- South Staffs Water customer
Delivering for the environment
We will lead in protecting and enhancing the environment - working with partners to ensure sustainable water supplies and flourishing local habitats.
We will:
- invest in new water sources and regional water transfers to make sure we have enough water to supply our customers
- reduce how much water we take from rivers and underground sources to protect and restore rare habitats
- identify alternative practices that will help us deliver non-treatment based solutions to any emerging water quality challenges.
We will:
- lead on installing water recycling systems in every home and business, where possible
- lead on working with developers to design state-of-the-art, water-efficient homes and appliances to help customers use less water
- look to tackle leakage further by using new and innovative methods to find and fix leaks quickly, helping to protect water supplies.
We will:
- develop and implement a plan to protect and restore all the chalk stream habitats in our Cambridge region
- work in partnership with Anglian Water to build a new reservoir in the Fens by the mid-to-late 2030s
- work with communities to create beautiful environments that everyone can enjoy.
"I would expect the water company to do its best not to damage any local wildlife habitats and if they did to compensate for it in other areas, for example projects creating habitats like the ones destroyed"
- Cambridge Water customer
Delivering for our customers
We will innovate to exceed customers' expectations of our service, end water poverty and make sure help is always available.
We will:
- give customers greater control over their bills and reward them for using less water
- proactively identify and support vulnerable customers who cannot pay their water bills
- work in partnership with others to help reduce the burden on customers through the bills they pay
We will:
- use the latest technology so that customers can communicate with us in the way they prefer
- provide easy access to new communication channels and tools, so that no one is left behind.
We will:
- use predictive data and insight so that we can deal with service issues before customers are affected
- provide an instant service to customers and resolve their issues first time, all the time.
"Being able to speak to someone directly on the phone about billing is a good thing and it's really important this continues"
- Cambridge Water customer
Delivering for our communities
We will use partnerships and education to lift our communities, creating space and opportunities to help people work and thrive.
We will:
- engage with even more young people, encouraging them to become the water-efficiency champions of the future
- encourage behavioural change amongst our customers, using technology to tailor our information to them more effectively.
We will:
- collaborate with local groups and organisations, and listen to what our communities want from us in the future
- support our hard-to-reach communities, taking into account language, disability, and technology accessibility considerations
- build on the success of our innovative Community hub, adapting our approach in line with customers' future needs.
We will:
- encourage and train the next generation of water sector experts across our business, focusing on developing new skills as appropriate
- continue to listen to and engage with our customers and communities, and act to deliver the things that matter most to them.
"Utility poverty is a huge problem in this country and sometimes a break makes all the difference"
- South Staffs Water customer
Delivering for our business
We will lead in adapting to climate change and will run a safe, efficient and sustainable business, with a highly skilled workforce.
We will:
- look at all the options available to us to reduce the carbon emissions from our operations
- explore renewable energy options, including wind and solar power, and biofuel gas
- use efficient procurement processes and collaborate with supplies to reach our net-zero target by 2050.
We will:
- make sure our people have a positive working experience, with hybrid working, where possible, and sustainable office spaces
- make greater use of remote technology and use smart, digital versions of our network as the norm to monitor everything.
We will:
- continue to use our apprenticeship, succession planning, and development schemes to make sure we recruit and retain the right people
- continue to engage with our people effectively and help them to always deliver their best for our customers
- continue to ensure our people always have the skills and developmental opportunities they need to do their jobs effectively.
"I felt valued from day one, when I saw a dedicated prayer room available on site to practice my faith."
- South Staffordshire Water PLC employee, Cambridge region
Delivering a long-term strategy
This high-level vision represents our initial thinking on the sort of business we want to be by 2050.
Please click on the image below to enlarge:
Useful links
If you've got any feedback about our vision to 2050, we'd love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts by emailing us.
