Built Environment Committee
Tuesday 7th July 2026
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10:50
Speaker 1
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Speaker 1
Everyone, welcome again to the Built Environment Committee. This is the fourth evidence. Welcome again to the Built Environment Committee. This is the fourth evidence. Session of our inquiry into new towns, specifically about bricks and mortar. And we're very delighted. Today we have joining us three distinguished members of the profession, Stewart Colville, the deputy chief executive at water UK. John Marsh, who's the chief innovation officer at Be You, u k infrastructure, and Lawrence Slade, who's the chief executive at Energy Networks Association.
So we have got quite a lot to get through and we're really looking forward to your evidence and the conversation with us. Um, and as I said previously, please don't feel obliged that everyone has to answer every question because we completely appreciate that. And we always welcome, um, information in. Writing. Afterwards, we are avid for evidence. Um, so if you could introduce yourselves very briefly before we start our questions, can I start with you, Stewart?
So we have got quite a lot to get through and we're really looking forward to your evidence and the conversation with us. Um, and as I said previously, please don't feel obliged that everyone has to answer every question because we completely appreciate that. And we always welcome, um, information in. Writing. Afterwards, we are avid for evidence. Um, so if you could introduce yourselves very briefly before we start our questions, can I start with you, Stewart?
10:51
10:51
10:51
Speaker 3
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Speaker 3
I'm John Marsh. GTC is the company we're part of the UK group. I started life 46 years ago in utilities, working for what I referred to as incumbents, the traditional regional utilities. So it was nationalised in those days. They had a 25 year career there. Then the last 20 years is what we call independence, because we do just new build. And then we link into the grids that these guys run. So we do multi utility.
So we have a slightly different role to these guys.
So we have a slightly different role to these guys.
10:52
10:53
Speaker 4
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Speaker 4
Hi. Yes. Thank you. Lawrence Slade, chief executive of Energy Networks Association. We represent the transmission operators, uh, and the distribution operators for the electricity networks in the UK and Ireland. And we also work with an increasing number of independent network operators such as GTC book as well.
10:53
Speaker 1
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Speaker 1
You're very welcome, because as you can imagine, you've probably read some of the evidence on previous parts of the inquiry. There is a great deal of anxiety about the delivery of infrastructure and when and how it's delivered, and the connectivity between different parts of the of the industry and the timing of everything in the context of where we are with the new towns now. So it's a very important session for us, actually. May I ask you to speak up slightly?Because although the microphones are good, the acoustics are not very good in this room.
That would be really helpful for me. And our first question is from Lord Cameron of Dillington.
That would be really helpful for me. And our first question is from Lord Cameron of Dillington.
10:54
Speaker 5
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Speaker 5
Thank you very much. Good morning. Thank you very much for coming. I suppose my question is the sort of first umbrella type question is to is to what extent does the provision and connection of utilities represent as a limiting factor factor to the building of new towns or delivery of domestic homes all around in general?I don't know who wants to start. John. Perhaps you might start.
10:54
Speaker 3
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Speaker 3
The independence, as we call ourselves, just to get that distinction from the regional incumbent, water electric or gas companies. The independents do 80 to 90% of the new build market now for electric and gas. The incumbents tend to look after the upstream, the grid capacity, which is so important. So we're doing I'm talking for independence rather than just my company. There are several companies like us bringing investment and delivering. So this already works. We do sites up to tens of thousands of homes.
We do some sites all new build. We do some that are just small 20 plot sites. Some might be several thousand, such as Ebbsfleet, the Brent Cross site. Some big point is this works. Now if we get it right. It works because we need a site wide joined up utility structure for a full site, and the new towns are a wonderful opportunity for that. So think at the start. There are very much problems of getting water on a huge scale and getting electricity on a big scale, without a doubt.
But with the size and the timing of these sites, they're no different. Some of the big private developments that we're doing now that have a master developer, and then multiple parcel developers. So every week the independents are connecting seven, 8000 new homes per week, which is volume build of housing. So the key is to get very early engagement with independents, with the incumbents. The early engagement is key and get a right size capacity plan using smart energy, which is a wonderful world.
And this is happening today. But I'll talk a little bit about that in the examples. But get the right size electric, get it phased, do the same with the water and get talking to the incumbents very early on.
We do some sites all new build. We do some that are just small 20 plot sites. Some might be several thousand, such as Ebbsfleet, the Brent Cross site. Some big point is this works. Now if we get it right. It works because we need a site wide joined up utility structure for a full site, and the new towns are a wonderful opportunity for that. So think at the start. There are very much problems of getting water on a huge scale and getting electricity on a big scale, without a doubt.
But with the size and the timing of these sites, they're no different. Some of the big private developments that we're doing now that have a master developer, and then multiple parcel developers. So every week the independents are connecting seven, 8000 new homes per week, which is volume build of housing. So the key is to get very early engagement with independents, with the incumbents. The early engagement is key and get a right size capacity plan using smart energy, which is a wonderful world.
And this is happening today. But I'll talk a little bit about that in the examples. But get the right size electric, get it phased, do the same with the water and get talking to the incumbents very early on.
10:58
10:58
Speaker 2
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Speaker 2
Probably I would I would agree with John that the last mile or two of connection is is not likely to be an issue. There's a market for delivering those connections. It works pretty well where there may be a problem is in the upstream supply of water. And so to give you a flavour of that, as we sit here today, even before the addition of new towns, there are a patchwork of restrictions on the addition of new houses and commercial developments across parts of some problems with that system of regulation.
So to illustrate the point, for example, our plans um, do not foresee these new towns because they were prepared in advance of that. All right. Maybe you can fix that. But they also exclude, for example, data centres as a source of demand explicitly. They just sort of assume there'll be no additional demand from that. They assume that business demand will come down when the historic trend on business, some problems with that system of regulation. So to illustrate the point, for example, our plans um do not foresee these new towns because they were prepared in advance of that.
All right. Maybe you can fix that. But they also exclude, for example, data centres as a source of demand explicitly. They just sort of assume there'll be no additional demand from that. They assume that business demand will come down when the historic trend on business demand is flat. So I'm concerned that as we prepare the next cycle of water plans for the reservoirs and all that upstream supply, we need to eradicate some of these optimistic blind spots. We need to get the new towns in.
And actually, it's fairly pressing because we've got about 18 months to write the next cycle of plans, which will influence investment through to the mid 2030s.
So to illustrate the point, for example, our plans um, do not foresee these new towns because they were prepared in advance of that. All right. Maybe you can fix that. But they also exclude, for example, data centres as a source of demand explicitly. They just sort of assume there'll be no additional demand from that. They assume that business demand will come down when the historic trend on business, some problems with that system of regulation. So to illustrate the point, for example, our plans um do not foresee these new towns because they were prepared in advance of that.
All right. Maybe you can fix that. But they also exclude, for example, data centres as a source of demand explicitly. They just sort of assume there'll be no additional demand from that. They assume that business demand will come down when the historic trend on business demand is flat. So I'm concerned that as we prepare the next cycle of water plans for the reservoirs and all that upstream supply, we need to eradicate some of these optimistic blind spots. We need to get the new towns in.
And actually, it's fairly pressing because we've got about 18 months to write the next cycle of plans, which will influence investment through to the mid 2030s.
11:00
11:00
11:00
Speaker 2
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Speaker 2
Yes. So there will need to be upgrades to wastewater plans as well. Um the wastewater plans are following a similar trajectory to the water one. So again we've got about 18 months to fold in the additional demand that we expect to take place from these new towns and work with the regulators to make sure that the investment needed is authorised and available, not least so that then John and his colleagues can put the connections in to to get all these houses connected.
11:01
11:01
Speaker 4
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Speaker 4
I think from the obviously, I can only speak for the electricity side of things, but I think I can build quite neatly on, on John's comments. Um, and it's, I think it's a theme you're going to hear quite a lot throughout this morning's session that the critical part from an electricity network point of view. So joining up to the local distribution network provider or transmission operator is around how early you can have that conversation. So the earlier it is, and I think this probably goes as well for for Stuart and Water, the more we can ensure that it is in our future demand profiles for that particular region and that network area.
Um, and I think how that works in a coordinated way is absolutely critical, frankly, whether you're talking about electricity, water, telecoms or transport infrastructure, transport infrastructure becoming even more important as we move towards electrification and EVs coming through and understanding the future power demand of a new town as we move again, not just the EV side of things, but also as we look towards electricity for heating, etc., changes the whole demand profile of house changes, demand profile, um of a new town. And, you know, as we look forward, we need to look at sort of how we can manage that, how we can work with the town planners in this respect, the local planners, and how we can actually then look at, okay, this is the potential future demand.
This is how we're going to work with flexibility around these issues and how we can manage that connection. So the watchword for us is early engagement is absolutely fundamental to this. I think another area that we need to be sure of is whilst a lot of great work has been done with the Planning and Infrastructure Act so far, there are more issues around how we can ensure that, um, we are able to reinforce the local network in a timely fashion. So we've got land access rights, we've got planning consents, and we can then make the investment decisions to move forward.
Um, and I think how that works in a coordinated way is absolutely critical, frankly, whether you're talking about electricity, water, telecoms or transport infrastructure, transport infrastructure becoming even more important as we move towards electrification and EVs coming through and understanding the future power demand of a new town as we move again, not just the EV side of things, but also as we look towards electricity for heating, etc., changes the whole demand profile of house changes, demand profile, um of a new town. And, you know, as we look forward, we need to look at sort of how we can manage that, how we can work with the town planners in this respect, the local planners, and how we can actually then look at, okay, this is the potential future demand.
This is how we're going to work with flexibility around these issues and how we can manage that connection. So the watchword for us is early engagement is absolutely fundamental to this. I think another area that we need to be sure of is whilst a lot of great work has been done with the Planning and Infrastructure Act so far, there are more issues around how we can ensure that, um, we are able to reinforce the local network in a timely fashion. So we've got land access rights, we've got planning consents, and we can then make the investment decisions to move forward.
11:02
11:02
11:02