The intervention by the Water Delivery Taskforce clears the way for more than 18,000 homes by replacing a planning stand-off with a phased infrastructure strategy allowing housing and utility upgrades to progress together.

Anglian Water had objected to several major developments because existing wastewater treatment works lacked sufficient capacity.

Under the new agreement, developers, planners and the water company will work together much earlier on schemes of more than 500 homes, allowing wastewater upgrades to be designed and delivered over successive investment periods rather than delaying planning decisions.

The deal covers five major housing schemes:

• 7,750 homes at the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community
• 3,700 homes at Dunton Hills in Essex
• 3,400 homes at Spitalgate Heath in Grantham
• 3,200 homes at Baldock in Hertfordshire21 homes at Beccles in Suffolk.

The agreement also kickstarts plans for a new water recycling centre at Grantham alongside a strategic pipeline and a 20-million-litre storage reservoir.

Environment secretary Emma Reynolds said: “This is another success story for the government’s Water Delivery Taskforce, which has already unblocked over 55,000 homes with solutions driven by pragmatic thinking and long-term strategy.”

The blockage-busting housing taskforce was established in 2025 to tackle utility constraints holding back housing and previously helped unlock around 21,000 homes in North Sussex after resolving a four-year wastewater impasse.