(by Karma Loveday) Defra is to review the rules governing the spreading of sewage sludge on land, to reduce health and environmental risks from PFAS. That was part of a strengthened Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) published last week by the Government. A key feature of the new five-year environmental roadmap is the first-time publication of delivery plans for the statutory targets set under the Environment Act. These provide visibility and will help progress to be tracke

(by Karma Loveday) The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is to publish a base cost modelling working paper for consultation mid month. In an update to the administrative timetable for the PR24 appeals, the CMA said responses would be welcomed until early January. The statutory deadline for final decisions is 17 March 2026. New Appointment and Variation (NAV) Icosa Water has rebranded to Last Mile Water, to reflect its integration into the multi-utility Last Mile group

(by Verity Mitchell) Business retailer Wave has reported full-year results to 31 March 2025. Group revenue was £554.9m, up 11.9% (2024: £495.5m). The portfolio gross margin — the element of charges retained by the retailer after settlement of wholesale costs — was 8.3%. Management said this is reflective of underlying performance compared to a margin of 9.4% in the previous period. Operating profit fell 16% to £10.3m (2024: £12.3m). Its operating profit margin at 1.85% comp

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has approved, and will implement on 16 December, a “clear, robust, and future-proof definition for smart AMI meters”. In its decision document on code change proposal CPW163, Ofwat explained the current definition is vague, opening the way for meters that require visual reads to be included. Specifically, this relates to smart AMI meters that are installed but not yet connected to the communication network, and smart AMI meters where equipment failure

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency and Ofwat have identified “serious concerns” with Affinity Water’s security of supply risk and called for “immediate action to address the issues” – with a warning of escalation and enforcement if this does not happen within the required timeframe. In a joint letter with Defra on the 2025 annual review of the company’s Water Resource Management Plan (WMRP), the regulators set out the following concerns:  Distribution input and per cap

(by Karma Loveday) The Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) is consulting until 29 January on its draft decision that the South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO) solution should pass Gate Three of its staggered approval process.   This decision would unlock £100m in funding, enabling the solution to continue refinement on its journey to Gate Four. The next stage of work includes further design development, finalising the groundwater fl

(by Karma Loveday) At the time of writing, a boil water notice remained in place for 24,000 South East Water customers in the Tunbridge Wells area. The company took the decision to recharge its network on 3 December so customers – some of whom have been off supply since 29 November – can flush their loos and wash. But it stressed the water did not meet regulatory drinking standards and so should not be consumed or used in food preparation without boiling first. A bad chemical

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofgem has published price controls for electricity transmission and gas networks. Compared to the £104bn of totex for water, Ofgem is only allowing £28.1bn of upfront investment across the electricity transmission (ET), gas transmission (GT), and gas distribution (GD) price controls. Ofgem said this is a 16% increase from the draft determinations, based on better supporting evidence and updated modelling. The regulator admitted that this is only part of a

(by Verity Mitchell) Fitch Ratings saw an improvement for water in its UK Utilities Outlook for 2026. It said that the Cunliffe review proposals constructively target financial stability, regulatory consolidation and stronger consumer protection. The core recommendation – an integrated water regulator for England and a similar body for Wales – should simplify oversight, cut duplication and close gaps. Fitch said it is too early to judge the effects of these changes on its reg

(by Verity Mitchell) Thames Water reported financial results for the half year ending 30 September 2025, with underlying revenue increasing by 42% to £1,880m. The increase was attributable to the new price controls. Underlying EBITDA rose by 69% to £1,211m, reflecting not only the increase in revenue but also better control of operating costs as the company transforms its operations. The company reported a profit after tax of £328m, compared to the prior period’s loss after t

(by Karma Loveday) Only one-third of sites that are meant to be protected for nature are now in ‘favourable condition’. That is among the findings from a Office of Environmental Protection (OEP) study into how the regulations covering Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are being put into practice. The report, Review of implementation of laws for terrestrial and freshwater protected sites in En

(by Karma Loveday) Thames Water has lifted its hosepipe ban , citing that recent rainfall has helped restore groundwater levels in its western region and the Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford. This is now 90% full, which is average for the time of year. Storage in London is steadily improving but remains below average for the time of year. Water Plus and a trio of explorers rowing across the Atlantic have teamed up to raise awareness and engagement on reducing planetary impact.

(by Karma Loveday) The water required for hydrogen and carbon capture projects will likely push some UK regions into a deficit as early as 2030, putting both decarbonisation and wider growth at risk. That’s according to a study commissioned by retailer Wave from Durham University. The research assessed how much water will be needed to reach net zero by 2050 across England’s five largest industrial clusters: Humberside, North West England, Tees Valley, the Solent, and the Blac

(by Verity Mitchell) Chancellor Rachel Reeves, in her Budget speech, took credit for the current Government’s achievement in “resolving the historic under-investment in water infrastructure across England and Wales which has led to bill increases over the past 12 months”. Admitting that that under-investment has been the problem, rather than poor operational and financial management, reflects the Government’s recognition that there needs now to be a more supportive rhetoric a

(by Karma Loveday) The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has announced an investigation into Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure (DfI), Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the Utility Regulator over the regulation of sewage discharges into Belfast Lough. The investigation will examine the regulation of discharges of untreated sewage from wastewater treatment works and combined sewer overflows, and determine whether these a

(by Karma Loveday) 93% of England’s bathing waters met the Environment Agency’s standards in the 2025 season. Of the 449 designated sites, 297 (66%) were ‘excellent’, up from 289 last year. Meanwhile 32 sites (7%) were classified as ‘poor’, down from 37 last year. The results continued a multi-year trend of improvement, although inland bathing sites continued to struggle. The Government’s new Bathing Water Regulation reforms came into force on 21 November. These reforms chang

(by Verity Mitchell) Pennon Group’s share price performed strongly on the day of its half-year results, partially reflecting post UK Budget bond market movements, as the company returned to profit.  At the half year, profit before tax was £65.9m, rebounding from a loss of £38.8m previously. Regulated revenue in water rose 26% year on year from strong demand over the summer and regulated price rises. The step change in underlying EBITDA, an increase of £91m (up 55%) to £254.4m

(by Verity Mitchell) Welsh Water reported half-year results that benefitted from increased allowed revenues from the new price control. Revenue at Welsh Water increased by 27% to £459m. The company incurred £15m of restructuring and transformation costs, £7m of professional fees associated with consultancy support, and £8m of employee-related costs associated with a redundancy programme for 500 roles. Operating profit was £87.1m compared to a loss of £1.2m in the comparative

(by Karma Loveday) Scottish Water achieved its highest overall service score to date in the 2024-25 assessment of its performance in by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS), the regulator’s fourth annual report of the 2021-27 period. The company secured its highest-ever Outcome Performance Measure score, improving in eight of nine measures, including supply interruptions, low-pressure incidents and serious pollution events. WICS noted that favourable weather cond

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency is running its second consultation on updating River Basin Management Plans , this time to ask for views on the challenges rivers face. The Significant water management issues consultation is open until 20 May. Environment secretary Emma Reynolds will give evidence on water and environmental regulation to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee at 2pm on Tuesday. Members are expected to ask questions on the water White

(by Karma Loveday) A ban on the sale of wet wipes containing plastic has been signed into law in England. There will be an 18 month transition period, with the ban coming into force in Spring 2027. Medical exemptions are allowed. Defra said a further ban on manufacture will be considered once the ban on supply and sale has come into force. The ban only applies to wipes containing plastic. Water minister Emma Hardy has written to manufacturers urging that product labelling for

(by Karma Loveday) New meter reading performance standards and charges will come into force on 1 December, after Ofwat approved code changes CPM058c and CPW149c, giving effect to the latest stage of Market Performance Framework reform. Five new standards on cyclic and transfer meter reads will join the three linked to BR-MeX that came into force in April, forming the Key Performance Indicators for trading parties under the reformed system. The intention has been to sharpen in

(by Karma Loveday) The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has advised water companies to take tailored approaches to water saving advice for customers after conducting a study of how 2,000 people define essential and non-essential water use. The key findings were: Most consumers described essential use as water needed for hydration (63%) and personal hygiene (33%). Activities such as gardening and washing the car were widely viewed as non-essential, despite being part of many p

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat is to formally open its new Water Efficiency Lab to bidders tomorrow.   £5m of the total £25m available between 2025 and 2030 will be on the table in year one, with a maximum award per project of £1.5m. Innovators have until 10 March to submit their pitches, which must be focused on developing new technologies, data-driven tools and solutions that enable households and businesses to understand their water use and take steps to reduce it. Ofwat said po

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency (EA), which licences abstraction, has said the current amount taken out of rivers, lakes and groundwaters is not sustainable. The regulator called for achieving greater water efficiency to become “a national priority” – particularly during the current drought. The comments came as part of the EA’s 2024/25 (pre-drought) review of Water Resource Management Plans. The key findings included:  Average daily water use per person was 136.5 l

(by Karma Loveday) In her annual report for 2024-25, the Environment Agency’s (EA) chief regulator Jo Nettleton celebrated the progress made to hold water companies accountable, despite some of the worst performance results for years being reported in the year. These include the 60% increase in serious pollutions documented in the EA’s July pollution report for 2016-24, and the industry achieving only half marks in October’s Environmental Performance Assessment. Nettleton sai

(by Verity Mitchell) Thames Water customer bills could be nearly 20% higher in five years' time if the rescue plan proposed by lenders is approved. That is according to reports of a research note from Barclays. Both CKI and Castle Water have reportedly complained that their alternative proposals have been sidelined in favour of the rescue plan being negotiated with Ofwat by London and Valley Water, Thames’ A creditor consortium. According to reports, Barclays’ research calcul

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has introduced a cost change process to enable water companies to access additional revenue in the PR24 period. The adjustment process, promised as part of the PR24 settlement, is for the following critical cost areas: cyber security, PFAS, asset health, growth, large gated schemes, development of the Havant Thicket reservoir, and development costs for other major projects. Companies will be able to submit claims in 2026, 2027 and 2028. This is a si

(by Verity Mitchell) Severn Trent has announced half-year results and that chief executive Liv Garfield will step down at the end of December. After 11 years at the helm, she will be succeeded by James Jesic, currently capital and commercial services director at Severn Trent and managing director of Hafren Dyfrdwy. Jesic is a chartered engineer, with a PhD in chemical engineering and has spent his career working in many parts of the organisation. Revenues increased by 18% to

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has indicated a muted response to the PR24 provisional redeterminations from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for the five water companies that appealed their 2025-30 regulatory settlements. The CMA has not yet published stakeholder responses to its October draft decisions, but in a summary shared by Ofwat of the key points it has raised, the regulator welcomed the bulk of the Authority’s judgement. It said the CMA decisions are “within 1%

(by Karma Loveday) Water minister Emma Hardy promised a “full White Paper” in response to the Cunliffe Commission recommendations, and a Water Reform Bill “early in this Parliament” when she gave a keynote address at British Water’s annual conference last Monday. The minister’s speech indicated that the Government’s reform package will be ambitious and wide ranging. Change, she argued, is needed because water is an essential public service, vital for growth, and fundamental f

(by Karma Loveday) The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) reiterated its call for a single social tariff to be introduced to end the postcode lottery of water affordability support, as it published its Water Mark report for 2025. This provides an at-a-glance view of each company’s performance across areas important to customers, drawing on customer research, complaints data and operational performance reports (see table). The 2025 Water Mark showed water companies supported 2m

(by Karma Loveday) Defra has convened a new group, to operate until 2030, to try to ensure there is a water workforce of the size and competence needed to deliver the £104bn AMP8 and major projects programmes. At least 30,000 new people are needed to fulfil these commitments. The Water Skills Strategic Group, co-chaired by Defra and Energy & Utility Skills, brings together senior leaders in Government with those from across the water sector and its supply chain. The inaugural

(by Karma Loveday) Major water users have called on Defra and Ofwat to learn from the energy smart metering experience and set smart water meter rollout goals that are aligned to excellent customer experience, rather than to the number of meters installed. That was among the messages in a new guide produced by large water customer representative the Major Energy Users' Council (MEUC), which draws on its members’ experience in energy to share lessons for water – both pitfalls

(by Karma Loveday) The Government is to strengthen the cyber protections of essential industries via the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) introduced to Parliament last week. The Bill contains three pillars of reform to the existing Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations 2018, which cover drinking water, energy, transport, health and digital industries: Regulation – The Bill aims to drive a more co

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency ramped up its warning about drought in 2026 as it published its Drought prospects report last week. It said without average rainfall, most of England will experience a drought with widespread impacts felt by consumers, farmers, businesses, and nature. This followed a Met Office forecast for higher-than-usual likelihood of dry conditions over three months from November to January.  This would cause drought conditions to worsen, and lik

(by Karma Loveday) The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced a new AI Growth Zone in North Wales as part of a policy paper on building the infrastructure to underpin AI development. The paper deals with accelerating grid connections, enabling developers to build their own high voltage infrastructure, targeted electricity price support, planning reforms, community benefits and the formation of a dedicated AI Growth Zone Delivery Unit. But there was litt

(by Karma Loveday) The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee has issued a call for evidence for its new inquiry into the relationship between regulators and economic growth, in light of the Government’s ambition for regulators to support investment and innovation and drive growth. The Committee is seeking evidence from regulators, economists, academics, industry experts, consumers, campaigners and others on questions including: What is the role of regulators in sup

(by Karma Loveday) Tonnes of plastic beads are washing up on the East Sussex coastline after escaping from Southern Water’s Eastbourne wastewater treatment works. The company investigation has found that a storm surge on 29 October cased a screening filter to fail, allowing the beads in a tank to be pumped into the sea via the long sea outfall. Because of the distance from shore, it took days for them to wash up on a heavy spring tide and be detected by the community, initial

(by Verity Mitchell) Thames Water has launched a fifth set of consent requests from its super senior creditors. It has so far drawn £872m of the initial £1.5bn available under the super senior liquidity facility. It now wishes to extend the June release condition to 28 November 2025, and to make other amendments to the facility, including changing the dates and amounts of scheduled drawdowns to reflect its liquidity needs. These amendments will allow Thames to draw a further

(by Verity Mitchell) United Utilities reported half-year results that exceeded analysts’ expectations. It reaffirmed its guidance for full-year revenue between £2.5bn and £2.6bn. Operating profit was £562m, a 67% increase year on year. Regulated revenue was up 21% to £1,309m in line with expectations. Earnings per share (EPS) was 52.8p, beating analysts’ expectations by 3%. United Utilities affirmed guidance of 100p for full-year EPS. Debt/Regulatory Capital Value remained st

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat is consulting on a proposed £11m enforcement package, following its findings that Wessex Water failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater network adequately. An agreed enforcement package has the advantage of being redeployed to resolve problems rather than having Wessex incur a penalty where the money is returned to the Consolidated Fund operated by HM Treasury. This is the sixth enforcement case agreed by Ofwat. It follows the conclusi

(by Karma Loveday) Following reports that ministers may consider withdrawing from the Aarhus Convention , 40 of the the biggest environmental NGOs and several King’s Counsel barristers have written to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to urge that the UK Government reaffirm its commitment to the Convention which guarantees access to information, participation in decision-making, and environmental justice. The Government recently stated in a Parliamentary Question that it had “

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has accepted an undertaking from SES Business Water (SESBW) on a return to compliance with the Retail Exit Code (REC) price protections and on compensation for adversely affected business customers. This is instead of an enforcement order, given SESBW has been proactive in putting matters right. SESBW was found to have charged some customers more than allowed for in the REC in 2023, and then for further contraventions including of a regulatory directi

(by Karma Loveday) Brighton and Hove City Council and the University of Brighton have moved into the monitoring phase of a pioneering project to protect 90% of the city’s drinking water – and the health of the chalk aquifer that supplies Brighton – from toxic road pollution. The council has built the Wild Park Rainscape beside the A27 to capture and filter runoff polluted with road-related contaminants (including oil, tyre particles, heavy metals and microplastics) before it

(by Karma Loveday) River health stakeholders have collaborated on a plan of action to deliver effective river monitoring under Section 82 of the Environment Act, which requires water companies to monitor water quality upstream and downstream of treated effluent outflow points, by measuring pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, ammonia, temperature, and conductivity. The Testing the Waters Consortium's first face-to-face event brought together representatives from major manufacture

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency has approved Severn Trent’s application for a drought permit to refill the Carsington and Ogden reservoirs in Derbyshire. Severn Trent has an abstraction licence to take water from the River Derwent at Ambergate to fill its Carsington and Ogston reservoirs. The licence stipulates that the water company must reduce abstraction to 15 megalitres of water per day (Ml/d) when the average daily flow in the River Derwent is below 680Ml/d. Th

(by Karma Loveday) River Action has started its legal challenge against Ofwat for allegedly allowing some customers to pay twice for infrastructure improvements. At a hearing last week in Manchester Civil Justice Centre, 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

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has written to water company regulatory directors inviting them to submit proposals for additional enhancement allowances to support investment linked to demand growth – notably relating to data centres and housing targets. This followed company responses to a March 2025 Ofwat letter about enabling growth, in which the industry highlighted the need for funding mechanisms. Ofwat will consider proposals through the PR24 cost change process submission wi

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has published a performance-related executive pay (PRP) assessment for 2024-5. This is the first year in which Ofwat has had the legislative powers to both prohibit PRP and apply the PRP cost recovery mechanism. The PRP Prohibition Rule is focused on whether a water company should pay PRP or not, and the recovery mechanism is focused on when customers should fund PRP. PRP is prohibited when a company has: breached a principal statutory duty; receive