Public backing for mega-reservoir, says Thames Water

Almost nine in 10 people support the building of a new £6.6bn reservoir in Oxfordshire according to a survey.

Thames Water said 89% of 2,004 adults surveyed across the South East view the White Horse Reservoir, formerly known as the South East Strategic Reservoir Option, near Abingdon, as "important to safeguarding future water supplies".

It follows four record-breaking heatwaves in 2026 and the driest July for England and Wales on record, with more than two-thirds of England now in drought.

The Chairman of the Group Against Reservoir Development (GARD) Derek Stork said its petition had 8,000 signatures that were "representative of people's views" rather than the selected sample.

Thames Water said the research had been conducted by the agency Accent, which collected the data between May and June.

The proposed reservoir would secure the water supply for 15 million people in the south east of England, including customers of Thames Water, Affinity Water and Southern Water.

Thames Water said two thirds of people "are worried about having access to a consistent supply of water and less than a third believe there will always be a plentiful supply of water in the region".

The firm warns of "a billion litre daily shortfall of water by 2050 without urgent action".

Plans for the reservoir progressed to a planning application stage in May and if approved by the government, water will be available for use from 2040.

Leonie Dubois, delivery director at Thames Water, said the support for the plans shown in the survey was "incredibly encouraging".

"This summer has served as a stark reminder of the extremely hot and dry weather that is set to become our new norm.

"It's therefore vital that we're able to store more water and White Horse Reservoir's role in future water supply is of national critical importance."

However, Stork said the GARD petition along with objections from parish councils, the Vale of White Horse District Council, Abingdon Town Council and Oxfordshire County Council was more "representative of people's views rather than some kind of selected bunch of people who were put in a room and asked focus group questions".

GARD also collected about 500 signatures at Truck Festival in July.

Commenting on the issues caused by heatwaves and drought, Stork said fixing leaks should be "the first priority" as a lot of water stored underground was leaking "at an appalling rate".

He said transferring water from the wetter areas of the country was another solution, which had been implemented by other countries with drought problems such as the UAE and Qatar, and that people should also "stop using so much water".

Stork said they would not object to "building a reservoir like Farmoor [in Oxfordshire] to temporarily hold water back".

Thames Water says that the reservoir would create more than 1,000 new jobs during its construction.