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 […]

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 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 […]

The Winter edition of our Community Update is now available, and we’re excited to share how we’re working to maintain water quality as we develop the scheme. We’ve created a short animation to explain the water recycling process, and we’ve answered some specific questions from our Phase One Public Consultation on the quality of water […]

Water recycling is an important and innovative process that ensures homes, schools and businesses around the UK receive clean, safe and high-quality drinking water, but many customers are unaware of how the process actually works. To address this, we’ve created a short animation to take you through the process, demonstrating how water recycling is a […]

Ensuring we protect and preserve wildlife, and conserve heritage sites and architecture is vital to the development of the Grand Union Canal Transfer (GUCT), and our teams have been hard at work surveying the scheme’s proposed route.   Over the last 12 months, the GUCT’s Environmental team has been traversing the scheme’s proposed route, surveying the land that’s been identified for the transfer to be built and developed.   From locating badger nests to laying reptile mats and […]

We understand how important peace and quiet are to our local communities across the Grand Union Canal Transfer’s route, and we’re committed to ensuring that any noise from our work is kept to a minimum. Doug Hunt, Head of Engineering and Environment at Affinity Water, is one of our technical experts on the GUCT scheme.  […]

While we prepare for our next public consultation in early 2026, we’ve agreed to keep you updated on key elements of the scheme.​ At our first non-statutory consultation, in autumn 2024, we identified two potential options for connecting to the canal near Atherstone. Option 1 was a route from Coleshill Road across a section of […]

Our Summer issue of our Community Update is now available, and we’ve showcased what we’ve been learning in the Canal Section of the scheme. In July, we ran our water navigation trials taking volunteers on various crafts down the Llangollen Canal in Wales, to help us understand how the flow rate would impact their experiences. […]

We’ve published the Spring issue of our Community Update, with a focus on our environmental surveys and assessments and the steps we’re taking to ensure we’re doing all we can to avoid, reduce and mitigate the impacts of our proposals on the environment. We’re currently gathering extensive environmental information to identify and assess the likely […]

Welcome to our first Community Update for the Grand Union Canal Transfer, which will bring water from the Midlands to the Southeast, using the existing canal network.
We’d like to thank all of you who came to our consultation events or outdoor pop-up events along the canal.
The feedback we received is a vital part of our understanding of the views of local communities, canal users, stakeholders and businesses and it will shape the early development of our plans.

Britain’s historic former industrial canal network is set to play a pivotal role in creating a sustainable and resilient water supply for 750,000 people in the Southeast. Plans currently being consulted upon could see the historic Coventry, Oxford and Grand Union canals transform water supply by transferring millions of litres of water each day from […]