National Grid for water planned

A NEW 'National Grid' is to supply water to anywhere in the country it is needed by commercial users and even individual homeowners who want to wash cars or keep the garden green.

British Waterways is close to announcing a preferred bidder to operate the Water Grid, which will draw water on the 2,000-mile network of rivers and canals BW manages, much of which flows through the centres of towns, many of which developed with the advent of the waterways.

The choice is between Anglian Water Consortium, Northumbrian Water and United Utilities. John Taylor, BW water development manager in charge of the project, said: 'British Waterways can already move water anywhere it wants throughout its existing system. We earn £4.5m a year by supplying water companies in Bristol and Cheshire via canals, for example, as well as power stations and even individual waterside businesses .'

The chosen partner will immediately embark on a marketing campaign among potential users in Britain's driest parts. Taylor declines to discuss Water Grid investment and revenue targets, saying these are still being discussed with potential partners, but says they will be 'substantial'.

BW already operates a fibre-optic telecoms network in partnership with Easynet. The cable travels underneath towpaths and extends beyond the existing inland waterways network.

BW's estate includes canal frontages in London - the Regent's Park Canal, for instance. It also owns East London canal frontages, and all the waterways on the Isle of Dogs and around Canary Wharf, inherited from the former London Docklands Development Authority.

BW is a State body that wants to supplement its State funding, £62m to last March, with commercial income and capital to create surpluses to reinvest in updating and extending the 200-year-old canal network.

Another £66m came from EC and other grants, while commercial income has grown rapidly to more than £62m from water sales, fibre optics, commercial property rentals and licences for the 3.5m tonnes of freight carried on inland waterways.

About 200 miles of waterway is to be reopened this spring. There are also plans to link the Thames and the Severn. The first new canal to be built for a century is planned for a 20-mile stretch between the Great Ouse at Bedford and the Grand Union at Milton Keynes.

BW's commercial income would have been higher but for losses, which will carry over into this year, due to floods and last March's closure of the entire waterways system during foot-and-mouth - the first shutdown in its history.

BW has just announced its preferred bidder out of a field of 24, a consortium of Amec Developments and Morley Fund Management's Igloo Regeneration Fund, for a public-private partnership to fund waterside property development across its estate. BW is also looking for the money to buy waterside property that would repay doing up.