(by Karma Loveday) River environment charity WildFish is awaiting a High Court decision on the legality of house-building plans in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton, which it argued would see an already-overwhelmed sewage works discharging even more sewage into the ‘poor’ rated Great Ouse River. The challenge is against Buckinghamshire Council’s decision earlier this year to sign off on planning for the development, but WildFish said: “The High Court’s decision i

(by Karma Loveday) The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee kicks off its new inquiry into the relationship between regulators and economic growth on Tuesday. The first session will hear from academics and is expected to cover issues including: what regulators can do to support growth; the key challenges and trade-offs between growth and other objectives which regulators have; the strengthening of the Growth Duty; the role the Government should play in encouraging

(by Karma Loveday) Defra and the Welsh Government have laid a Statutory Instrument before Parliament to amend the 2013 Bathing Water Regulations, to give effect to the outcome of the 2024 consultation on modernising the bathing water regime. In a written statement to Parliament, water minister Emma Hardy said there were three core reforms plus some technical amendments:  Core Reform 1 removes automatic de-designation when a bathing water site receives a classification of ‘poo

(by Karma Loveday) Thames Water has opened a statutory consultation on the 150bn litre SESRO reservoir in Oxfordshire. Public input gathered during this consultation, which runs until 13 January, will directly inform the application for planning consent that Thames Water will submit to the Government in Autumn 2026. The consultation includes updates on scheme design and amenity. Anglian Water and Cambridge Water have launched their first public consultation, open until 21 Dec

(by Karma Loveday) England needs at least 100% of average rainfall (482mm) to largely recover from drought by the end of March next year. That came in an update from the Environment Agency to the National Drought Group last week. For context, only two months of 2025 have seen more than 100% so far. Despite recent rain and some alleviation, the water resource situation in England remains a ‘nationally significant incident’. The Group said England should prepare for an ongoing

(by Verity Mitchell) Pimco has sold the majority of its Thames Water bonds to the hedge funds already involved in the restructuring: Apollo, Elliot and Silverpoint. This appears to be profit-taking after the recent price rise of the traded debt. This in itself indicates optimism from the market that the most recent proposals for the financial restructuring of Thames may be viable. The sale may also indicate that Pimco has no interest in the debt to equity swap envisaged in th

(by Karma Loveday) Wales will take the opportunity presented by Independent Water Commission-led reform (IWC) to rethink its water arrangements beyond regulation. In a statement to the Senedd, deputy first minister and cabinet secretary for climate change and rural affairs Huw Irranca-Davies shared the following intentions, in his update on next steps for Wales from the IWC:  To create a new economic water regulator for Wales in line with IWC recommendation, but one that also

(by Karma Loveday) The Government intends to consult on establishing a centrally-led development corporation to deliver nationally significant growth in Greater Cambridge, backed by £400m of initial investment. In a written statement to Parliament, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said the new corporation would build on the work to date of the Cambridge Growth Company (CGC) to “realise the full potential of Greater Cambridge as part of our plans to supercharge growth in the

(by Karma Loveday) Severn Trent has applied for a drought permit to continue abstraction from the River Derwent over winter even if it has low flows due to more dry weather. The company needs to keep Carsington Reservoir topped up for public water supply. Severn Trent said it did not anticipate harm to wildlife or ecology in the river as winter flows are naturally higher anyway. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Defra have reported using government-b

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat and Thames Water have agreed that Thames can further defer its decision on whether to apply to the Competition and Markets Authority for a redetermination of its PR24 settlement. The latest deadline to appeal expired last week, but ahead of that the parties agreed on an extension of the deferral – this time with no fixed deadline – to enable Thames to continue its ongoing discussions with creditors. Thames said it remains focused on delivering a recap