Independent assurance verifies robustness of Anglian Water pollution reduction programme
Published: 28 October 2025
Framing the challenge
Anglian Water has been experiencing a higher than desired number of pollution events, attracting significant regulatory, political, and media attention.
The Anglian Water Board requested independent assurance to verify the robustness of the chosen programme of interventions aimed at achieving targeted reductions in pollution risk. This presents an opportunity to ensure the additional targeted investment will achieve the desired results and represents value for money.
Approach and implementation
We were engaged to provide independent assurance on the programme of interventions. The assurance process was conducted through three closely linked work packages:
- Governance, portfolio, and programme management: Reviewing existing governance processes against best-in-class benchmarks to evaluate the effectiveness of decision-making and the quality of portfolio and programme delivery management.
- Value/benefit realisation: Assessing the systems and controls in place to articulate risks, benefits, and uncertainty, and how these are reflected in decision-making. This includes reviewing option selection, evidence base robustness, confidence in benefits, and deliverability risk.
- Financial optimisation: Evaluating the cost-benefit assessment approach against best practice, including natural capital and externality considerations. Benchmarking cost estimates at scheme and programme level and assessing the relative risk of programme costs and benefits.
The assurance resulted in monthly and Board-level quarterly assurance reports, with the executive summary providing a health-rated assessment of the performance and progress from the previous quarter.
Impact and outcomes
Our independent assurance has given the Board at Anglian Water confidence that the programme of interventions is robust and that the targeted investment will achieve the desired pollution risk reduction.
The assurance has resulted in key performance improvement of the programme, notably the improvement of benefits management.
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