Affinity Water Limited is a UK supplier of drinking water to 3.8 million people in parts of London, eastern and south eastern England. The company is owned by a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

Allianz Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...

, HICL and DIF Tamblin.

History

Affinity Water was established through the purchase of

Veolia Water Veolia Water (formerly Vivendi Water, originally Compagnie Générale des Eaux) is the water industry, water division of the French company Veolia Environnement and the world's largest supplier of water services. History The Compagnie Génér ...

's UK water supply operations by Rift Acquisitions, an entity established by

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

and M&G Investments, for £1.2 billion on 28 June 2012. The three separate Veolia Water-branded businesses: Veolia Water Central, Veolia Water Southeast and Veolia Water East were brought together as one company, under the Affinity Water brand on 1 October 2012. Veolia Environment retained a 10% stake in Affinity Water for five years from incorporation, using the proceeds of the disposal to reduce its debt, as part of a €5bn debt-reduction programme announced in December 2011. In May 2017, a consortium of

, HICL Infrastructure and DIF purchased Morgan Stanley and M&G's 90% holding, followed by Veolia's 10% holding.

Supply area

Affinity Water supplies three geographically distinct regions of England. The Central region serves parts of

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

and

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. The East region serves part of Essex. The Southeast region serves part of

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. They operate 16,989 km of water mains.

Campaigns

In 2019, Affinity Water launched their #WhyNotWater campaign. This aimed to solve the upcoming shortfall between supply and demand. The program intended to achieve this by pushing for mandatory water efficiency labels on appliances, giving tenants rights to demand water efficient appliances and enforcing domestic water efficiency through the use of mandatory certifications. In April 2021, Affinity Water launched their Save our Streams program. It aimed to reduce customer demand by offering free water saving devices, such as a low flow shower head or tap aerators. They aimed to encourage consumer behaviour through educational visits to school as well as being present on the

high street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

to remind customers that the water is being taken from the environment. They used radio and TV adverts to convey the message. They had a target of 120,000 sign ups by the end of the 2022 financial year, reaching 191,000 in the end. The campaign saved over 21 million litres of water a day in 2022. In 2022,

Ben Fogle Benjamin Myer Fogle (born 3 November 1973) is an English broadcaster, writer and adventurer, best known for his presenting roles with British television channels Channel 5, BBC and ITV. Early life Fogle is the son of English actress Julia ...

joined the campaign, helping advertise the program.

Compulsory metering

Under the

Water Industry Act 1991 The Water Industry Act 1991 (c. 56) is an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament consolidating previous enactments relating to the water supply and the provision of wastewater services in England and Wales. It further implemented recommendations of ...

, water companies are permitted to install water meters to domestic properties on a compulsory basis if the area is deemed to be in serious water stress. Affinity Water's region is deemed as being in serious water stress, meaning they are permitted to meter domestic properties. They aim to install 280,000 meters to households. This would lead to 80% of customers being metered in 2025 and 90% of sites by 2045. This is being delivered at the cost of £59m. They are starting the program by focusing on key areas in their catchment. These areas were selected due to their high water demand and lack of available resources. Key areas are

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

, Hatfield,

Northolt Northolt is a town in North West London, England, spread across both sides of the A40 trunk road. It is west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the seven major towns that make up the London Borough of Ealing and a smaller part in th ...

, Staines,

Egham Egham ( ) is a town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna Carta was ...

and

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It grew up around Chertsey Abbey, founded in AD 666 by Earconwald, St Erkenwald, and gained a municipal charter, market charter from Henry I of Engla ...

. Once customers have a meter fitted, they are given 2 years to switch over to metered billing, whilst receiving 2 bills to gain an estimate of the cost. The

water metering Water metering is the practice of measuring water use. Water meters measure the volume of water used by residential and commercial building units that are supplied with water by a public water supply system. They are also used to determine Flui ...

program is estimated to reduce demand by 18% for metered customers, which alongside projects to increase available storage is expected to provide enough water for customers as

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

threatens supply.

Environmental controversy

In the summer of 2022, Affinity Water ran half the

River Ver The Ver is a long chalk stream in Hertfordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Course The source is in the grounds of Lynch Lodge, Kensworth Lynch on the west side of the A5 trunk road and stays ...

dry due to abstracting too much water. 6 miles out of the 17-mile length were considered as dry. Affinity Water abstract nearly 10 million litres of water each day from the river. The firm published a statement saying it is committed to reducing the amount it takes from the environment.

References

External links

*
Affinity Water, Our history

UK Companies House company no. 02546950
{{Authority control 2012 establishments in England Water companies of England Companies based in Welwyn Hatfield British companies established in 2012 Companies supplying water and sanitation to London