Co-creating DWMP23

We developed DWMP23 through engaging with around 2,000 customers and stakeholders from national, regional and local levels. We facilitated around 1,000 hours of interactive engagement activities. These included focus groups, surveys and webinars.

We carried out lots of our engagement work online, particularly during Covid-19 restrictions. We used a blend of digital and face-to-face methods to gain your views after this time, too.

info graphic showing stakeholders customers and regulators

Working together

Who we engaged with, how we engaged and what topics we covered. 

Customers

  • Domestic
  • Business
  • Future
  • Older
  • Living in vulnerable circumstances

Stakeholders

  • Customer Challenge Group (CCG)
  • Local authorities (planning, flooding and highways)
  • National authorities
  • Catchment Partnerships
  • Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee strategic partnership areas
  • Local environmental action groups
  • Land and riparian owners
  • Other organisations (eg TfL)
  • Industry practitioner groups

Regulators

  • CCW
  • Environment Agency
  • Natural England
  • Ofwat
  • Defra
  • National steering groups 

Topics we covered

  • Your drainage and wastewater service
  • Planning objectives and priorities for the next 25 years
  • Acceptable solutions to our customers and stakeholders
  • Affordability
  • Final plan preferences

How we gathered your views

  • Customer research programme
  • Focus groups
  • Interactive customer and practitioner portals
  • Website
  • Region-wide online survey
  • Interactive website content
  • Customer priority polls
  • Public consultation on our draft plan

Our partnership working

We’ve lots of experience collaborating with drainage and wastewater stakeholders. Over the years, we’ve delivered many major and long-term integrated plans and solutions together, which have achieved sustainable benefits.

Through our stakeholder engagement, we captured many more areas of common risk, highlighting the partnership opportunities that, if developed, could contribute to us meeting our shared goals.

In our final DWMP23 we identified over 270 partnership opportunities of which over 40% are mature enough to be delivered in the first five years of our plan.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed to this shared plan from 2019. We’re particularly grateful for the feedback we received during the public consultation period in summer 2022. Your input helped us strengthen DWMP23.

See how we responded to your feedback in our You Said, We Did Technical appendix.

Find out more about our engagement work in our Stakeholder Engagement Technical appendix and our collaborative work in our Partnership Working Technical appendix.