(by Karma Loveday) David Hill , Defra’s director general for strategy and water, will now focus on water only. His adjusted role, as director general for water , is in recognition of the volume and significance of Defra’s work on water as the sector is reformed.  The Scottish Government is seeking a new chair for the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. The application window runs until 27 April. Interim WICS chair Ronnie Hinds shared: “We are looking for someone who is p

(by Karma Loveday) Done effectively, AMP8 could mark a turning point in restoring public trust. But rather than focusing solely on infrastructure improvements, the sector should appreciate that accountability, transparency, and prioritising customer concerns will also be important. That’s according to YouGov research for Cavendish Consulting. The headline findings included: Half (52%) of respondents believed that water supply and management across the UK is poor. However, per

(by Verity Mitchell) > Pennon trading at the lower end of market expectations  In its pre-close update ahead of its full-year results for the year ending 31 March 2026, Pennon said EBITDA is expected to increase by c.55% year-on-year, despite weather-related cost pressures and higher costs in the first year of the regulatory cycle. The board expects profitability to be within the range of market expectations for 2025/26, albeit at the lower end. South West Water’s Pollution I

(by Karma Loveday) Project Zero, an Ofwat Innovation Funded project led by Affinity Water to explore the role of new housing developments in supporting water neutrality, has found homes designed to be water efficient can significantly reduce demand. High-efficiency fixtures and appliances such as air-power showers, low flush toilets and water-saving washing machines were found to reduce household consumption by between 40% and 60%, while integrated water reuse systems could c

(by Karma Loveday) A Water Smart Growth Board has been set up to support the delivery of sustainable housing growth through better, more integrated water management across England. Co-chaired by the Government and property developer Thakeham's chief executive Rob Boughton, the board brings together senior leaders from the Government, the housing sector, water industry, regulators, environmental bodies, academia and practitioners to drive ‘water-smart’ new homes: resilient, wa

(by Karma Loveday) The 2025 Event Duration Monitoring returns published by the Environment Agency show significant reductions in spill events. Storm discharge numbers fell by 35% to 291,492 in 2025 compared to 2024, and total monitored spill duration fell by 48%. There was also a 20% reduction in average duration per spill event . Reporting the data, the Environment Agency said: “Much of this improvement reflects unusually dry conditions in 2025 following a particularly wet 2

(by Karma Loveday) The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a damning report for Defra and its environmental regulators, which expresses scepticism about their ability to manage upcoming reform and deliver the twin goals of economic growth and environmental protection. Environmental regulation noted that Defra, the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England are changing the way they regulate in response to 149 recommendations from multiple independent reviews. But:

(by Verity Mitchell) Rating agency S&P’s regulatory assessment of water companies in England and Wales is now strong/adequate. According to a new report, it sees a weakening of regulatory and financial stability and a risk of reduced regulatory independence. It considers that only a few companies will be able to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Although S&P continues to view the tariff-setting process for water utilities in England and Wales as transparent and supp

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has launched a new Major Water Infrastructure Programme combined gated process that brings together RAPID’s oversight of early water infrastructure project development and Ofwat’s major projects team's regulation of later stage project delivery. The new programme contains 30 large-scale water infrastructure projects which will be delivered over the next 15 years. The projects included are RAPID Strategic Resource Options and/or projects meeting the cr

(by Karma Loveday) The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has published a set of recommendations from the expert group it convened in July 2025, which provides a framework of governance principles to underpin safe water reuse. Specifically, the framework will allow the use of rainwater and greywater for specific applications where drinking water quality is not needed (such as toilet flushing or garden watering), whilst ensuring the drinking water supply is protected from cross

(by Karma Loveday) Businesses and organisations in the Cambridge Water Resource Zone will be able to apply for grants of between £500 and £100,000 for water saving projects between 13 April and 1 May.   The £1.6m Water Efficiency Cambridge Fund (weCB) is provided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and administered by MOSL, and seeks to reconcile the city’s water scarcity with its growth ambitions. The fund is open to businesses, charities and other o

(by Karma Loveday) Today, Water UK and the English water companies launch a national campaign to raise awareness of the unprecedented level of investment being ploughed into water and wastewater infrastructure between 2025 and 2030, and the benefits this will bring. ‘The Big Upgrade’ campaign will use billboard, hoarding, audio, social and digital channels to bring first-of-its-kind cohesion to individual water company communications about their investment programmes. Followi

(by Karma Loveday) Water bills have risen — and will stay high for the foreseeable future — not only to cater for growth, a changing climate, higher standards and ageing assets, but also because it is no longer possible or legitimate to use natural services for nothing. That’s according to a report out last week from the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) and  The UK Water Report. Water in transition: rising costs and the decline of free environmental services  

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has published guidance for water companies on adhering to the new Fitness and Propriety Rule . It said it would consider each firm’s approach to the guidance when assessing compliance.  The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) has launched a manifesto ahead of the Holyrood elections in May, calling on the next Scottish government to develop a long-term Infrastructure 2050 strategy for Scotland , as part of a package of governance, inves

(by Verity Mitchell) South East Water (SEW), under the spotlight for its many infrastructure and customer service failures, has published an update on its plan to improve resilience. This follows the £22m fine recently announced by Ofwat for historic interruptions to supply between 2020 and 2023. South East Water had tried and failed to prevent the announcement with an injunction. Now it needs to restore regulatory and customer confidence. Its plan involves both engineering w

(by Verity Mitchell) London & Valley Water (L&VW) has published its latest proposals for recapitalising Thames Water. It stressed that these are non-binding and still under discussion between Ofwat, Thames Water itself and other regulators. L&VW has increased the amount of equity it proposes to provide to Thames Water to £3.35bn from £3.15bn. It would obtain up to £6.55bn of new debt: a mix of an initial £3.25bn, and a further committed facility of up to £3.3bn. It proposed a

(by Karma Loveday) Defra has published its first Strategic Policy Statements (SPSs) for the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England (NE), which include guidance on enacting the ‘constrained discretion’ advised by the Independent Water Commission. The statements are non-statutory but intended to complement statutory objectives and duties for each regulator. Principally, they set out the environment secretary’s expectations on how to deliver on both nature recovery and econ

(by Karma Loveday) On Friday, the High Court dismissed River Action’s application for judicial review against Ofwat for allegedly allowing some customers to pay twice for infrastructure improvements. River Action claimed Ofwat acted unlawfully when it implemented its policy that customers must not pay twice. The clean river campaigner said that in effect, some households would pay for infrastructure improvements to achieve environmental compliance, which should have been fund

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat is consulting until 7 April on its decision to approve a code change that would explicitly oblige wholesalers to work with customer-appointed third parties on data logger matters. CPW161 explained: “Evidence included with the proposal indicates that when third parties [appointed by customers] approach wholesalers for permission to install data loggers, they have found that some wholesalers avoid working with third parties on data loggers and metering

(by Karma Loveday) Chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty has accepted a commission to chair the Public Health Water Taskforce promised in the Water White Paper. Defra’s director general for strategy and water David Hill told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee in a session on ‘Work of the department and its arms length bodies’ that the taskforce is “looking at the evidence base underpinning public health in relation to water, both bathing waters and drinking w

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has published a report, Economic impact of water supply infrastructure investment , which argues that investment in major capital projects in water supply drives economic growth. Working with KPMG, Ofwat set out to prove how the proposed £50bn investment in strategic water resource options will provide economic benefit to England and Wales by quantifying the Gross Value Added (GVA) of water supply investment. Across the UK economy, GVA analysis prov

(by Karma Loveday) The utilities sector is facing a potential mass exodus of strategic communications talent across organisations — including suppliers, networks, regulators and trade bodies — at a time when effective public engagement, transparency and trust-building have never been more critical. That’s according to new research from specialist recruitment firm Murray McIntosh. Its Strategic Communications Report 2026 collated the results of a survey of 3,200+ professional

(by Karma Loveday) Source control measures such as product bans and phase-outs, alongside upgrades to the treatment process, are successfully reducing hazardous substances in water systems. That’s according to latest findings from UK Water Industry Research’s (UKWIR) Chemical Investigations Programme (CIP), which is a long-running industry/regulator monitoring and research partnership. The CIP3 Trend Monitoring Project (2020-2025) showed downward trends in concentrations for

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has proposed a £44m enforcement order against Welsh Water. This followed an investigation that concluded that Welsh Water has breached its legal obligations to adequately maintain and upgrade its wastewater network and treatment plants. Ofwat also found that the senior management and board had failed to ensure that assets were performing satisfactorily, and that there have been insufficient monitoring processes and oversight in place. The penalty wi

(by Verity Mitchell) EQT, a Swedish private equity group, has bought a 42% stake in Kelda Holdings, the Jersey-registered parent company of Yorkshire Water, at an undisclosed premium to regulatory capital value.   The deal saw Wharfedale Hong Kong (managed by Deutsche Bank’s DWS division) offloading its 23.37% stake, and Gateway Infrastructure Hong Kong (managed by Corsair Capital), selling its 30.32%. Both had been looking to sell their positions — which combined could have

(by Karma Loveday) The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has doled out a tougher final settlement than mooted in its October Provisional Determinations for the five firms disputing Ofwat’s PR24 decisions. Base allowances have been cut, but this has been offset by a higher rate of return and enhancement increases. Across the five companies, the CMA allowed additional revenue of £463m, equating to an average bill rise of 2.2% on top of the 24% Ofwat allowed. This is just

(by Karma Loveday) Phosphorous removal at sewage treatment works is having a positive effect on the ecological health of rivers, according to a study from the Environment Agency and University of Stirling . Reduced phosphorus levels and improved ecological indicators were both strongly associated with rivers in eutrophic sensitive areas, where significant investment in phosphorus removal at sewage treatment works has occurred. Thirty of 38 sites showed dual improvement. Busi

(by Karma Loveday) A new report has recommended that additional regulation is considered to support the critical and emerging data centre sector, while safeguarding water resources. The WRc research, funded by the Strategic Panel’s Market Improvement Fund, advocated the following: A reporting framework including policy interventions to enable easier benchmarking of data centre water use. This would consist of mandatory, centralised reporting of (at least a subset of) the metr

(by Verity Mitchell) Anglian Water Services Financing has confirmed that it will discontinue the engagement of S&P as one of its external credit rating agencies providing ratings coverage. This is subject to the successful redemption in full of £200m of guaranteed bonds due in 2029, which included a requirement to maintain rating coverage from S&P.  The proposed discontinuance follows an internal review of the resource demands involved in supporting a third rating. The compan

(by Karma Loveday) Microsoft is about to launch a free digital skills training programme for women in the water sector. TechHer for Water is part of Microsoft’s National Skills Initiative and is delivered in partnership with the UK Government. All women in water are invited to sign up for five 90-minute online sessions running on dates throughout April. These cover: Cloud AI Power Platform Copilot and Agents Security essentials Microsoft said the programme is “by women, for

(by Karma Loveday) The Water Innovation Implementation Programme — a new part of the Ofwat Innovation Fund — opened for applications last week. It is designed to help move innovations from successful trials to implementation at scale. Formally open until 2030, the programme is initially being run as a trial with a review point scheduled for March 2027. £40m is available across two streams:  The Early Adopter & Fast Follower stream: Applicants can request £100,000 — £1m   in

(by Karma Loveday) If the construction industry is to deliver the Government’s Ten Year Infrastructure Strategy, urgent improvements are needed in supply chain capacity, innovation and collaboration. That’s according to the Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE) 2026 State of the Nation report. Following a series of roundtables and interviews with water, energy and transport experts, the ICE made the following recommendations:  Supply chain capacity and productivity —  Westmi

(by Verity Mitchell) Thames Water has made a new request for more funds and more flexibility in disbursement under its emergency facilities. So far, it has drawn £1.426bn of the initial £1.5bn available under the super senior facility agreed with its A creditors. On the 12 February, Thames launched a process to allocate £823m of additional funds — the first part of an ‘Accordion’ facility of £1.5bn. Thames has now secured this initial funding commitment. This brings the tota

(by Karma Loveday) The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has said Defra’s response to its report on implementation of environmental laws relating to protected land and freshwater sites for nature is “disappointing and will not deliver the urgent action needed”. OEP chief executive Natalie Prosser explained: “In our report, published in December, we concluded that the legal framework was adequate but was not being implemented effectively, or at the pace and scale neede

(by Karma Loveday) Northern Ireland’s (NI) minister for agriculture, environment and rural affairs Andrew Muir has set out eight interventions planned to strengthen regulation and enforcement for wastewater pollution. In a Ministerial Statement in the NI Assembly, he shared the following intentions:  Legislating for stronger fines and penalties —  “I intend to introduce a Fisheries and Water Environment Bill in May to modernise enforcement powers by increasing the maximum fin

(by Karma Loveday) Defra is to bring forward secondary legislation with accompanying guidance to update the WaterSure scheme, but with some adjustments to the proposals it consulted on last summer. The department consulted between 21 July and 1 September on the following proposed changes to the national affordability scheme, which currently caps bills for low-income households on means-tested benefits who need to use high levels of water — because they have either a qualifyin

(by Karma Loveday) Further evidence of the patchwork experience of customers who are struggling to pay their water bills has been revealed by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee. It used its unique position to quiz the 11 water and sewerage companies on their approach to customers in arrears, including use of bailiffs and debt enforcement policy for vulnerable customers. This revealed that companies are taking very different approaches. Bailiffs, or enfor

(by Verity Mitchell) South West Water has pleaded guilty to an offence under the Water Industry Act 1991 for supplying water unfit for human consumption. The hearing at Exeter Magistrates Court was a result of the water contamination at Brixham from cryptosporidium. The Drinking Water Inspectorate brought the prosecution case following the incident in May 2024 when hundreds of South West Water’s customers became ill. The subsequent ‘boil water’ notice remained in place for ei

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has proposed a £22m fine for South East Water following an investigation into multiple supply disruptions between 2020 and 2023. This represents 8% of the company’s turnover. The investigation found that the company failed to plan sufficiently, learn from incidents and conduct root cause analysis to maintain resilience within its water supply system, and was therefore unable to cope during periods of high demand or extreme weather. Furthermore, the

(by Karma Loveday) Water minister Emma Hardy’s vision for water in 2050 features widespread reuse, nature-based solutions, data-driven insights and embedded innovation. “Above all, it recognises water as a strategic national asset — essential to public health, environmental protection and economic growth. An asset that must be effectively managed for the long term.” Hardy set out this stall last week at the World Water Tech Summit in London. She said: “Our vision for 2050 is

(by Karma Loveday) Scottish Water has proposed a £13.4bn investment package in its final business plan for 2027-33. This includes £8.1bn of investment (down from £8.5bn in the draft plan), and £5.3bn for operating and other essential costs. The substantial increase is in response to ageing infrastructure, growing climate change and regulatory pressures, and changing customer needs. The proposed increase to annual customer charges was 3.3% above CPI. Support for customers who

(by Karma Loveday) A major coalition of environmental organisations — including The Wildlife Trusts, National Trust, Wildlife & Countryside Link and nearly 40 others  — has launched a new public campaign demanding ambitious water clean-up action from government, regulators and industry. The campaign is backed by Clean water now , a new report setting out the urgent reforms needed in the upcoming Water Reform Bill. This argued that “years of weak enforcement, regulatory fail

(by Karma Loveday) ITV News reported exclusively that some of the most worrying potential impacts of nature loss weren't disclosed to the public when the Government published a summary version of its nature security assessment on Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security in January. The long version of the report was said to show that nature loss could lead to annual “GDP being 12% lower than it would have been otherwise by 2030.” Other omissions rep

(by Karma Loveday) Lib Dem MP Pippa Heylings has introduced a Ten-Minute Rule Bill that would require the secretary of state to nominate the UK’s chalk streams as a serial UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site. Speaking in Parliament, Heylings said England has custody of 85% of the world’s globally rare chalk streams. And yet: “Today, our chalk streams are in a perilous state. Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our nature and wildlife. Extreme droughts are exacerba

(by Karma Loveday) The National Rivers Consortium (NRC) — a partnership of environmental specialists, engineers and construction professionals dedicated to improving water quality through nature-based solutions — has launched a pioneering initiative to unlock thousands of delayed housing developments while restoring the health of the nation’s waterways. Under a first-of-its-kind scheme, developers active in areas designated for nutrient neutrality can purchase verified phos

(by Karma Loveday) Yorkshire Water was fined £733,333 plus costs at Derby Crown Court for three separate sewage spills in 12 months across 2018-19, at Pools Brook Country Park in Staveley, in a case brought by the Environment Agency.  Law firm Leigh Day has expanded the group claim it is leading against South West Water and its parent Pennon Group over allegations that these companies are responsible for sewage pollution affecting coastal communities. The claim was initia

(by Karma Loveday) UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) is seeking new independent non-executive directors to join its board. The organisation is inviting applications from within the water industry and from senior leaders in other sectors. The key areas of expertise sought include:   Digital and technology:  experience leading large-scale digital transformation, data and analytics, or responsible artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in complex, regulated environments such as

(by Karma Loveday) The Senedd has passed The Environment (Principles, Governance and Biodiversity Targets) (Wales) Bill, establishing a new framework for environmental protection in Wales. The new legislation will create the Office of Environmental Governance Wales, an independent body responsible for holding public authorities to account on environmental law.  This includes scrutinising the Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales and local authorities. The legislation also

(by Verity Mitchell) CKI, Power Asset Holdings (PAH) and CK Asset (CKA) have announced that they are selling their jointly-owned regulated UK electricity distribution business, UKPN, to Engie for £10.5bn — a 1.5x premium to UKPN's March 2026 regulated asset value (RAV). CKI will record a 14.5bn Hong Kong Dollar (£1.37bn) profit on disposal. This was a deal, according to CKI, that was “too good to resist”. The sale, combined with its UK rail sale, would result in CKI holding

(by Karma Loveday) River Action has launched a judicial review challenging the green light Natural Resources Wales (NRW) gave in November for three intensive poultry units in Powys to expand, in light of deterioration in the quality of the Wye and Severn catchments. The campaign group argued NRW has taken an “unlawfully narrow view of its powers” in considering that the environmental impacts of manure once it leaves the farm boundary fall outside of permitting rules.  Ofwa