Councillors will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 February 2025.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 2025 were agreed as an accurate record.

To receive reports on business which in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

(At the conclusion of this item the meeting was adjourned for five minutes)

Alan Burrows (Head of Local Government Liaison, Pennon Group) outlined the business plan for the future of Pennon Group, parent company of South West Water (SWW):

a)    The business plan ‘Asset Management Plan 8’ commenced on 01 April 2025 and ran up to 2030;

b)      There were four pillars to the business plan:

                      i.        Storm Overflows and Pollutions;

                     ii.        Water Quality and Resilience;

                    iii.        Biodiversity Net Gain and Carbon Net Zero;

                    iv.        Affordability.

The following was discussed during the item:

c)    Three years ago the Secretary of State for Environment had made a request that all water companies submit plans to reduce the operation of storm overflows by 2050, and SWW’s plan had a 2040 target date, and had been accepted by Government;

                      i.        Investment areas had been identified, and shellfish water and bathing water storm overflows would be prioritised, most being addressed over the first five years;

                     ii.        There were 1379 storm overflows in the South West, 450-500 already met the new Government standards and 291 would be improved within the next five years;

                    iii.        SWW was the only company to be proposing to meet new standards by 2040;

                    iv.        SWW would be investing £764m to in storm overflows 2025-2030;

                     v.        Storm overflow information was required by Government and was published online - WaterFit Live showed the status of storm overflows live online;

                    vi.        11 overflows in Plymouth were to be improved within the first five years, all of which were related to bathing waters and shellfish waters;

d)    SWW recognised the economic value of clean bathing waters for the South West region;

e)    Bathing water quality in Plymouth was very high;

f)     SWW were working with Plymouth City Council (PCC) on a Plan for Water to limit surface flooding and impact on storm overflows, and how to use green solutions to help reduce the water going into storm overflows and water quality overall;

g)    There was no breakdown for expenditure in Plymouth, and the increases in bills were spread across the customer area;

h)    There was an investment programme of £3.2 billion across the Pennon Water area;

i)     Bill increases were being invested in improvements to benefit the environment such as storm overflows and waste water management;

j)     Investment plans were heavily scrutinised by regulators;

k)    The West Hoe storm overflow has been identified for improvement;

l)     Combined sewers (that carried both sewage and rain water) had been in place since Victorian times with the aim of taking sewage to the sea, but at the time of privatisation in 1991, 40% of sewage discharges were treated and this had increased to 97% in 2025;

                      i.        3% was going into overflows and was not being treated and investments would mean less than 1% would be untreated in the future;

m)  There had been substantial political change since the beginning of the most recent pay review;

n)    There was engagement with a number of officers at PCC working on improvements that could be delivered in the Plymouth area and do  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

The Panel noted its tracking decisions document.

The Panel noted its work programme.