We will expand our sewer network and treatment capacity to meet the demands of planned new development across our region. This will allow more than 200,000 new properties to connect to our sewer system between 2010 and 2015.

We will begin a programme to increase the proportion of domestic properties with meters from 28 per cent to 37 per cent by 2015. This is the fairest way to pay and encourages careful use of water, as well as giving us useful information on patterns of water usage.

We will initially focus most of our work in London, Swindon and Oxfordshire, where there is the greatest potential shortfall between local water needs and the volume we can supply. Where possible, we will fit meters at the same time as we replace water mains, to reduce costs and minimise disruption to customers.

We will provide all newly-metered customers with advice and assistance to help them control their water usage and bills.

The results of a public inquiry into our revised draft Water Resources Management Plan will potentially affect our proposals.

Our strategy is to ensure 80 per cent of homes are metered by 2025. We will review our plans once we have completed analysis of the likely future effects of climate change, based on recently published forecasts.

We plan to provide better flood protection and make other improvements to our London water treatment works to ensure that we can protect the quality of drinking water and maintain water supplies during and after a flood, for the benefit of approximately five million clean water customers across the capital.

We also plan to provide better flood protection and make other improvements to water treatment works and pumping stations in Surrey to ensure that we can protect the quality of drinking water for more than 100,000 customers in the event of a flood.

In a separate project, we plan to increase our capability to provide alternative drinking water in the event of a widescale interruption to the water supply.

We draw groundwater from sources near Royal Brook to supply homes and businesses. We will assess whether this is adversely affecting the river environment.

We plan to make improvements to Merstham sewage works that will ensure our sewage treatment meets the needs of the river environment as the local population increases.  The Environment Agency expects this will help protect 8.1km of Redhill Brook. We will also expand our sewage works at Merstham so it has the capacity to treat the area's sewage until at least 2021.

We plan to investigate the potential presence in our discharge to the River Mole, the Farnham Park tributary and the River Wey of specific trace substances that are not completely removed by the sewage treatment process at Earlswood, Farnham and Haslemere sewage works.

We have worked hard to make sure that our sewage works meet strict environmental guidelines, and over the last two years have achieved close to 100 per cent compliance with treatment standards, our best ever performance. 

We plan to improve and refurbish our Mogden sewage works to help us maintain our current high levels of performance through to 2015 and beyond. This will include increasing the capacity of the site in order to meet new treatment standards, allow for future population growth and reduce the quantity of discharges of untreated storm sewage to the tidal River Thames.

Regulations have been revised to further limit the use of treated liquid sewage sludge on agricultural land during certain times of the year, in order to reduce nitrogen losses to water and so limit nitrate pollution. Sludge is the solid remains after water has been removed through the sewage treatment process.

To comply with these regulations, we intend to make improvements to Cranleigh, Chertsey, Haslemere, Camberley and Woking sewage works to turn liquid sludge into a solid cake. This is an equally effective fertiliser that reduces the risk of nitrate pollution.

We are proposing to protect homes and businesses at greatest risk of floods from our sewers. We will prioritise projects by taking into account the severity and frequency of flooding, and the cost per property of improvements. We will make improvements to our sewer network in Surrey to reduce the risk of sewer flooding to 110 properties that have flooded previously.

In addition, we expect to make further improvements across our region to protect more than 600 properties outside the capital that are flooded for the first time. We also predict that we will tackle flooding at around 400 properties across our region where we are provided with new information about previous flooding incidents of which we are currently unaware.

In addition to our normal work to keep our sewers running freely, we plan to investigate and resolve repeated sewer blockages near Addlestone. Blockages can prevent the sewer system from working properly and can even lead to flooding and pollution.

We plan to replace 200km of leaking pipes and old iron pipes causing discoloured drinking water outside the capital between 2010 and 2015. Part of this work will benefit Surrey.

We will also continue our major programme of work finding and fixing leaky pipes. We fix around 70-80,000 leaks a year (roughly one every eight and a half minutes) and we plan to maintain this level of work between 2010 and 2015.

We plan to make improvements to our:

• Guildford treatment works to reduce odour for around 30 neighbouring properties
• Cranleigh treatment works to reduce odour for around 100 neighbouring properties
• Earlswood treatment works to reduce odour for around 1,000 neighbouring properties
• Farnham treatment works to reduce odour for around 250 neighbouring properties

At our Camberley treatment works we currently use sewage gas in 'combined heat and power' units, producing renewable electricity and heat for use on the site. This reduces our overall energy consumption and our carbon footprint. We plan to improve the efficiency of our existing combined heat and power installation.

We plan to install new equipment at our sewage works near Chertsey. As well as renewable energy, heat captured from the combined heat and power unit can be used on the site. This will reduce our total energy consumption and carbon footprint.

These measures are part of our broader plan to reduce our carbon footprint by 20 per cent by 2015.

We will help customers to save water and reduce their bills by offering water efficiency packs to households where we are fitting water meters. Vulnerable customers will be entitled to professional audits from plumbers, who will install water-efficient devices.

We will also work with local authorities, housing associations and developers to promote water efficiency in existing and new homes. We will continue to promote water efficiency through education, partnerships, and research projects across our clean water supply region.