Moving water together
Welcome to The Grand Union Canal Transfer – a vital new scheme to bring water from the Midlands to the Southeast.
It’s a joint water transfer project between two water companies, Affinity Water and Severn Trent, and the Canal & River Trust, the charity that owns and cares for the canal network in England & Wales.
Our Phase Two Public Consultation ran for seven weeks from the 11 February until the 2 April 2026 and is now closed. You can visit our Consultation materials page for more information about the scheme.
The feedback and opinions we have received during the consultation period will help shape the next stage of the scheme’s development.
The need
Our water supply is under increasing pressure from population growth, more demand for water, the effects of climate change and the need to protect ecosystems. The canal network has transported people and goods for two centuries; it’s busier now than ever before, with more boats, and people enjoying, visiting and living on or by the canals, and supporting waterway dependent businesses.
We want to use it to help transfer recycled water from the Midlands to the Southeast to supply those communities who have a deficit of water.
This scheme is key to delivering a sustainable and reliable water supply for the future and reducing our reliance on water from other sources, including unique chalk stream habitats. It will also secure future water availability for canal navigation.
We’re still at an early stage in the scheme’s development. Listening to and understanding the views of people living and working on and by the canals along the water transfer route as well as those using them for recreation, wellbeing, access to nature and travel, is fundamental to how the scheme will be designed, built, and maintained.
We ran our first public consultation in Autumn 2024 and used the feedback to further develop our proposals and inform our scheme’s design. You can read about what we learned in our Phase One Public Consultation report here.
We’re now collating and analysing the feedback from our Phase Two Public Consultation which ran for seven weeks from the 11 February to the 2 April 2026 and is now closed. You can read more about our proposals in the documents and materials on our Consultation materials page.
Our Phase Two Public Consultation is now closed
Our Phase Two Public Consultation for the Grand Union Canal Transfer ran for seven weeks, from 11 February until 2 April 2026, and is now closed.
Visit our Consultation materials page to read more about our proposals.
Explore our route
Our map of the Grand Union Canal Transfer illustrates the route water will be transferred along the Oxford, Coventry and Grand Union Canals, from the Midlands to the Southeast.
The benefits
Our aim is to strengthen the UK’s water infrastructure, and create a legacy of resilient water resources for the supply of public drinking water and canal navigation, for future generations.
There are opportunities at many locations along the route to bring further long-term benefits to the environment and local communities, as well as for canal customers and users.
Communities
We’re working on behalf of our communities to protect the future drinking water supply. We’ll also improve facilities and access along the route for everyone who uses it.
Environment
We’re committed to leaving the environment in a better state than we find it. We’re exploring our options for this, including protecting and restoring priority habitats and enriching biodiversity along the route.
Canal customers and users
We’ll be using existing canal infrastructure, owned and managed by the Canal & River Trust, to bring the water from the Midlands to the Southeast. This means we won’t need to build unnecessarily and minimises the use of new materials. We’ll also make improvements to the canal network to secure its long-term sustainable future, keeping it open and alive, resilient and safe, and maximising its value to people, nature and the economy.
Latest news
A day in the life of our aquatic ecology team
Springtime is a very busy period for the Grand Union Canal Transfer’s aquatic ecology team, with May and early June being the optimal months for completing our all-important ecology surveys. Understanding the wildlife and ecology that resides along the scheme’s proposed route is integral to ensuring their protection, and vital to delivering a scheme that […]
Find out what we learnt from Phase Two Public Consultation in our latest Community Update
The Spring edition of our Community Update is now live and ready for you to read, and in this issue, we’re taking a look back at our Phase Two Public Consultation, which ran from 11 February to 2 April 2026. During our consultation period, we had really insightful conversations and informative discussions about our proposals. We met over 800 people at 15 community and canal side venues […]
Phase Two Public Consultation Events
Phase Two Public Consultation for the Grand Union Canal Transfer (GUCT) will formally launch on Wednesday 11 February, and will run for seven weeks until 23:59pm on Thursday 2 April 2026. In this consultation, we’re presenting proposals for the scheme that have been updated since our Phase One Public Consultation which took place in Autumn […]
