AMBITIOUS plans by city headquartered firm Severn Trent to invest £12.9billion to improve its water and sewage network will see 7,000 new jobs created by 2030, with a ‘significant amount’ coming to Coventry.
The firm’s CEO Liv Garfield spoke to the Observer on the investment, during which she revealed her biggest ambition from the scheme was to ensure not one bit of harm was caused to rivers by any of Severn Trent’s assets by 2030.
This follows multiple city protests this year against the firm by Extinction Rebellion, which claims last year Severn Trent dumped raw sewage into Midland rivers for 249,000 hours.
Mrs Garfield said during the first year of this plan the firm had been a ‘force for good’, reducing its impact on rivers by a third.
“We want to do the right thing and this includes being net zero in our operations and ensuring we are protecting our environment and helping to tackle climate change.
“We know people want improvements sooner rather than later and that is why we have gone to investors and secured £1bn to start work on some of our projects right away.”
She added as a result of this immediate investment, 500 new jobs would be created within the next six months, and she said she expected a third of these to come to Coventry.
The jobs will include more ‘River Rangers’ to improve the health of waterways and boost biodiversity.
Other top priorities include combatting climate change and population growth by laying new water mains almost the length of Lands End to John O’Groats twice over.
It’s anticipated this would provide an extra 100million litres a day from new water sources.
Work will also be carried out to improve storm overflows, which act as relief valves when the sewerage system is at risk of being overwhelmed at peak times – for example during heavy downpours.
In addition, Mrs Garfield committed to helping 100,000 people ‘out of poverty and into a better quality of life’.
The plans were shaped through conversations with 68,000 customers and have now been submitted to water regulator Ofwat, which will now review the proposals.
Final Severn Trent business plans for 2025 to 2030 will be confirmed in April.
