Corporate report

Environment Agency asset management vision

Published 10 July 2023

Applies to England

1. Our vision

Our vision is for safe, reliable and sustainable assets that support a healthy natural environment and climate resilient communities.

We are at the forefront of tackling the climate emergency.

We will take an asset management approach that will:

• provide climate resilience to the communities we serve
• meet our sustainability goals
• meet our carbon reduction ambition

We will manage and operate our assets safely, reliably and demonstrate value for money. This will:

• benefit our customers and the environment now and in the future
• help us to achieve the actions set out in our EA2025 plan

2. Our assets

Our assets help to protect people, property, and the environment from:

• flooding
• drought
• pollution

We have a wide range of assets, including:

• large pumping stations
• tidal barriers
• locks
• boat moorings
• monitoring stations for air and water quality

They provide a valuable recreational resource and help our watercourses thrive and support nature. We are confident they will work reliably when tested and can adapt to the changing climate and associated environmental impacts.

3. Our approach

This page explains the main principles of our asset management approach. It covers the whole lifecycle of our infrastructure assets, which includes:

• long term planning
• design and creation
• operation
• maintenance
• disposal

Our teams are our greatest asset. We are building a strong asset management culture across the business where our staff and suppliers understand their roles in asset management. This will help them contribute to achieving our corporate outcomes.

We have a strong governance and accountability structure. This makes sure our decisions are:

• risk based
• safe
• align to our main objectives.

Our asset management system will help make sure we have the processes, data and tools that support us in making the right decisions. We will do this at the right time, through every step of the asset management lifecycle.

Our asset management vision is supported by our asset management strategy which describes how we will :

• achieve our vision
• continue to develop our asset management capability

The strategy is not publicly available.

4. Our ambitions and principles

We have 3 long term ambitions which guide how we work. These are for:

• resilient assets - our assets will be safe, reliable, resilient to extreme weather events and adaptable in a changing climate
• sustainable decisions - our asset management will improve the environment, reduce carbon emissions, and adapt to future climate impacts
• multiple benefits - we will work with communities, customers, and partners to achieve greater environmental, economic, and social outcomes

We will use a systems approach to achieve our ambitions. We will do this with skilled and integrated teams working to a consistent standard within an internationally accredited system. We will continue to seek improvements through innovation.

We have 12 principles that provide the framework to the asset management strategy. These set out how we will work.

Our principles are to be:

• safe - we will make sure assets are safe for our staff and the public
• reliable - that assets operate to their desired performance standards when required and new assets are designed for reliability
• sustainable - our investment and management of assets will protect, restore and/or improve the natural and social value of places
• adaptive - our assets will be more adaptable to future climate impacts and to the integrated infrastructure needs of communities, in a socially equitable way
• lowest carbon - we will achieve lowest carbon in our whole-life build, operation, use and decommissioning of assets
• informed - we will understand our customers’ needs, and be clear on purpose and ownership
• collaborative - we will create strong relationships and work with communities, customers, and partners to achieve multiple benefits
• efficient - we will use a whole lifecycle approach to optimise performance and offer value for money, both for new and existing assets
• ambitious - we will support continual improvement through innovation and learning and seek external best practice
• digital by design - we will get the most from our data and digital capability​.
• assured - we will evaluate our asset and system performance, manage risk within systems and use a standard-based approach
• skilled - we will have diverse, agile and professional teams that understand the balance of skills needed by us and our partners