Water commission should support new reservoir in East Kent, says Conservative MP

Sir Roger Gale has been campaigning for a new reservoir in East Kent for four decades

Construction of a new reservoir in East Kent must be supported by the newly established Independent Water Commission, according to a local Conservative MP.

Sir Roger Gale told ITV News Meridian the government-backed body should “throw its weight behind” plans to build the water storage facility at Broad Oak near Canterbury.

The project has been in the pipeline for decades and was most recently subject to a public consultation in early 2023, with officials hoping it could be operational by 2036.

Sir Roger said: “I’ve been campaigning for it for 40 of my 41 years and I hope the commission may throw its weight behind it.”

Broad Oak reservoir is part of South East Water’s plan to provide the region with extra water over the next 50 years. Credit: South East Water

“We're building houses across East Kent. We can't go on building houses without water. We need that reservoir and if we take the decision to build it tomorrow, it'll still be 10 years before it's there,” Sir Roger added.

The Broad Oak reservoir scheme could hold more than 5,000 million litres of water, enough to supply 22 million litres of water a day, according to South East Water.

No new reservoirs have been built in England for more than 30 years, despite population growth significantly increasing demand for drinking water.

Labour’s Polly Billington says improved regulation of the water industry is desperately needed

Announcing a new Independent Water Commission, the Environment Department (Defra) said it would “speed up infrastructure delivery and restore public confidence in the sector”.

Labour MP Polly Billington welcomed the new body saying her constituents are “desperate for somebody to clean up the water industry”.

The East Thanet MP added that she hopes the commission “looks at how we attract investment to make sure we have the infrastructure we need”.

Government sources said the new commission would come up with solutions to “support house building and address water scarcity”.

The body will be chaired by Jon Cunliffe, former deputy governor of the Bank of England.

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