Almost 20,000 new homes have been unlocked in East Anglia following an agreement between the government and Anglian Water.

The government’s Water Delivery Taskforce stepped in as Anglian Water previously objected to several large-scale developments due to concerns over wastewater treatment capacity. The taskforce brought together local planning authorities, regulators and Anglian Water to agree a path forward.

The Water Delivery Taskforce was established in April 2025 and brings together representatives from Defra and wider government, regulators, water companies and the wider water and planning sectors. 

Through this new approach, Anglian Water is working with developers and planning authorities at an earlier stage in the process to enable large scale developments of more than 500 homes, allowing infrastructure upgrades to be funded and delivered in a phased way over multiple investment cycles.

The taskforce has opened up conversations around a potential new water recycling centre for Grantham – plus the existing construction of a strategic pipeline and 20-million-litre storage reservoir to allow for thousands more homes in the years ahead. 

The news follows previous Taskforce action in North Sussex, where around 21,000 homes have already been unlocked through work to resolve a four-year pause on development.

Mark Thurston, chief executive officer at Anglian Water, said: “Given the concentration and scale of growth in the East of England, we are at the forefront of many major infrastructure projects, including two new reservoirs, our Strategic Interconnecting Pipeline, hundreds of miles of modern pipes, water recycling infrastructure and nature-based solutions, such as wetlands. 

“We are working with regulators to chart the path between environmental compliance and supporting growth, and through our work with Defra’s Water Delivery Taskforce, Anglian Water is working with developers and local planning authorities at an earlier stage in the process to enable large scale developments of over 500 homes. This is an encouraging step forward in enabling us to deliver infrastructure upgrades over multiple investment cycles.”

The planned developments are:

• Spitalgate Heath, Grantham, Lincolnshire: 3,400 homes, 300,000 sq ft of employment space, and 86,000 sq ft for the local centre.
• Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community: 7,750 homes and 25 hectares of employment space.
• Beccles, East Suffolk: 721 dwellings, plus 5 hectares of employment land for a primary school, retirement community and community hub with retail space. 
• Baldock, Hertfordshire: 3,200 homes and 16 hectares of employment.
• Dunton Hills, Essex. 3,700 homes.