(by Karma Loveday) MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis made the case for a universal social tariff in water when he gave evidence to the Public Accounts Committee last week on the ‘Regulation of water, energy and broadband.’ He said: “I do not understand why the Government did not universalise the social tariff. In my job, I always use this example: mass communication. How do you communicate? How, on my television show, do I explain a social tariff? I have to say, ‘If you’

(by Karma Loveday) Nearly two thirds (62%) of customers support the water smart meter rollout and only 12% are opposed, according to research from CCW. However, awareness that a rollout is underway is low. 64% do not recall seeing any information from their water company about having a smart meter installed in their property, and many are unclear on why smart metering is needed. There is low awareness of water stress and the role smart meters play in reducing demand on water

(by Karma Loveday) Water minister Emma Hardy has indicated that Defra may choose not to commence Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act. Responding to a written question in Parliament, she said the Government is committed to improving the implementation of sustainable drainage, and had already consulted on revising the National Planning Policy Framework. But: “Better delivery of SuDS may be achieved by continuing to improve the current planning policy-based approach

(by Karma Loveday) Water minister Emma Hardy has announced that the Flood Re scheme will be reformed to correct “a system in which average-income and low-income households are subsidising flood insurance for the richest households in the country”. Flood Re is subsidised by all households that buy insurance. The money is used to buy insurance for homes exposed to flooding, so premiums for those home owners remain affordable. Hardy said the scheme had been a success, but: “The

(by Karma Loveday) Wave has launched Water Efficiency Services (WES) – “a new neutral sub-brand created to accelerate progress towards the UK's long-term water efficiency goals”. Building on the success of Wave’s Active Water Management services in the business market, WES will reach beyond Wave’s non-household customer base to support wholesalers, retailers and third-party intermediaries to provide water-saving initiatives directly, to both household and business customers.

(by Verity Mitchell) New research from Mitie has revealed senior leaders at more than half of UK organisations (53%) consider water a significant risk to their business. Rising water costs (50%), leakage (47%) and operational disruption (31%) emerged as the greatest concerns. With over two in five organisations (42%) worried about water-related risks in the near term, concern rises sharply to three in five (60%) over the longer term. The survey of 500 UK senior decision maker

(by Karma Loveday) Source: Ofwat Customers using between 5Ml and 50Ml of water a year will be taken out of price caps altogether, under proposals out from Ofwat for consultation until 14 August. This amounts to a significant relaxation of its Retail Exit Code (REC) price protections, which has been called for by retailers since the market has matured. The plan entails shrinking the current ‘Group 2’ customer boundary, from those consuming 0.5Ml-50Ml annually (hotels, farms, s

(by Karma Loveday) Eight finalists – including water companies, universities and labs – will receive £50,000 each from Ofwat’s Water Innovation Implementation Programme to explore expansion of UK-based Regulation 31 testing capabilities. The first Implementation Enablers challenge, newly part of the Ofwat Innovation Fund, has been run in collaboration with the Drinking Water Inspectorate. The aim is to tackle a key bottleneck holding back the adoption of innovative products a

(by Verity Mitchell) Government has claimed that its Water Delivery Taskforce has successfully stepped in to bring together local planning authorities, regulators and Anglian Water to agree a path to more home building. Anglian Water had previously objected to several large-scale developments due to concerns over wastewater treatment capacity. Through the new approach, Anglian Water is working with developers and planning authorities at an earlier stage in the process to enab

(by Karma Loveday) A PR24-funded £75m national Water Efficiency Campaign went live across England and Wales last week. ‘Let’s Save Water’ seeks to make a measurable contribution to a 5% reduction in water consumption within ten years, and more broadly to change how society thinks about water. The campaign’s core message in England is that “we’re using water faster than nature replaces it” while in Wales, it is that climate change is making supplies less predictable. The campa