Advertorial: This event and writeup was sponsored by Southern Water. Chamber UK retained editorial control of the agenda and outputs from the event. (Photo Silverstone Communications: Lawrence Gosden, Chief Executive, Southern Water addresses the Get Britain Growing South East Conference)
Without water, everything stops.” Southern Water Chief Executive, Lawrence Gosden set out his message for the future – urging vital action while expressing confidence that solutions can be found.
Gosden delivered his keynote address at the Get Britain Growing: South East conference – a day dedicated to exploring the region’s path to sustainable economic growth.
Held in partnership with Chamber UK, Curia and UKAI, the event examined how the South East can remain globally competitive while addressing pressing local challenges, including infrastructure demands, water resilience, housing shortages, skills gaps, and the need to attract long-term, sustainable investment.
Southern Water played a central role in discussions on greener growth, sustainability and regional infrastructure, highlighting the vital link between water resilience, economic growth, and community wellbeing. Gosden underscored how investment in modernising the South East’s water systems – from tackling leakage and improving wastewater management to supporting nature-based solutions – is essential for the region’s long-term prosperity.
The urgency of climate change
Gosden emphasised the escalating climate risks to water production and consumption. “If we do not start to change water infrastructure in this part of the country, in ten years’ time, during a drought, we will run out of water. In only ten years’ time – and without water, everything stops,” he said.
He proposed several solutions, citing the South East Strategic Reservoir Option in collaboration with Thames Water and the broader water transfer project to share water supplies between neighbouring water companies and across our own network to areas where it’s needed.
Getting ahead of climate change
Gosden urged the conference to “get ahead of climate change”, highlighting water recycling – a “tried and tested technology” that cleans water so effectively “you have to replace minerals” to make it taste like tap water. Warning that “if we don’t take action, we will start to run dry”, he advocated collaboration between local authorities and customers, and pragmatic infrastructure such as water butts – simple, but effective.
He argued for renewal, not reversal, of existing infrastructure: “Taking surface water out doesn’t mean we have to suddenly replace all of our existing infrastructure.” He explained that many simple structures already exist to keep surface water out of the network and can be optimised with minimal effort – “stopping that surface water coming in, letting it drain naturally into the environment”.
Infrastructure such as “swales on the side of roads, beautiful green ditches”, and “areas around trees where rainwater can naturally go into the ground” epitomises this approach, harnessing existing structures to “support growth”.
“Transformative” but “water-hungry” AI data centres, he argued, are also solvable: “In our sewage treatment works, we have lots of water – perfectly clean water – which we recycle and then throw away into the sea.” Instead, he insisted, that water should be used to cool data centres. AI, he urged, can be “used sustainably”.
A test of pragmatism
Gosden’s arguments were pragmatic and practical. He conceded that, viewed from a distance, these problems can seem unsolvable. When systems are combined – engaging drainage networks, customers, and different public bodies – the search for solutions becomes far more hopeful.
Final thought
Gosden’s contribution emphasised that clean growth cannot be achieved without a secure and sustainable water supply, particularly as the South East faces increasing pressure from climate change, population growth, and housing demand.
His speech – in keeping with other discussions at the conference – reinforced the region’s role as a national driver of clean growth, technological innovation and skills excellence, and its potential to shape the UK’s transition to a more resilient, knowledge-based economy.