The Integrated Water Management (IWM) hub aims to showcase learning and approaches developed through our programme that extend beyond the Oxford to Cambridge geography, making the programme’s outputs, such as guidance and insights, easily accessible and engaging for a wide range of stakeholders.
While core materials remain consistent, the hub is designed to help you find tools and resources relevant to your areas of work. There are key messages tailored to reflect individual stakeholder needs and interests to support effective engagement and embedding of Integrated Water Management (IWM) principles and approaches.
You will note that we refer to the Defra Group throughout the hub. The group includes Natural England, Forestry Commission, Environment Agency and Defra.
As the Environment Agency's Oxford to Cambridge team, we have been working closely with wider government and local partners since 2018 when the Oxford to Cambridge area was first identified by the National Infrastructure Commission in 2017 as an area of great economic and innovation potential. In 2020 the OxCam Arc Strategic Utilities Review identified significant water pressures across the geography. There are live acute water resource challenges in Cambridge and water quality constraints in Oxford, failure to resolve these has significant implications for planned growth in these regions. In 2018 when we began to address these issues, our team led the Environment Agency’s input, working with Defra colleagues, to help develop the Integrated Water Management (IWM) programme. Some of the pressures we were aware of then are still seen now, in 2025, such as water resource challenges in Cambridge and water quality constraints in Oxford. If left unresolved, these issues could have serious implications for planned growth in these areas. As new challenges emerge, we continue to work with others to improve the system and support more joined-up, long-term solutions.
