(by Karma Loveday) Defra is consulting on enacting Water (Special Measures) Act powers to bolster the Environment Agency’s ability to penalise pollution.  The consultation, open until 3 December, proposed to: Allow the Environment Agency (EA) to use a lower civil standard of proof, instead of criminal, for minor to moderate environmental offences, and set a cap at either £350,000 or £500,000 for penalties issued to the civil standard. Introduce new automatic penalties – “like

(by Karma Loveday) Pollution performance dragged sector results in this year’s Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) down to a new low for the AMP, with companies collectively earning only just over half of the stars available – 19 out of a maximum 36, compared to last year’s 25 stars. Severn Trent alone secured the highest rating of four stars, maintaining the place from last year and indeed from the whole AMP to date. Last year’s other four-star firms, Wessex Water and

(by Karma Loveday) After a couple of years of there being no performance leaders in the sector according to Ofwat, Portsmouth Water alone managed to outpace the rest and climb to ‘leading’ status in the Water company performance (WCPR) report for 2024/25. Eleven companies made the ‘average’ category, with Anglian Water joining last year’s average cohort after pulling itself out of ‘lagging behind’ last year. Five – up from last year’s three – were considered to be lagging be

(by Karma Loveday) Anglian Water and Cambridge Water are running a third consultation on the Fens Reservoir, open until 10 December. The consultation includes an updated design for the main reservoir site which has taken account of feedback from earlier phases of consultation and features proposals for more water-based and land-based recreation and ideas that would provide views across the water. It also includes more information on the associated water treatment and transpo

(by Karma Loveday) MOSL has published the first round of wholesaler business retail service performance results that will be factored in to determine the first BR-MeX payments for water companies. BR-MeX, the business customer and retailer measure of experience, was introduced at PR24. Wholesalers will be rewarded or penalised based on how retailers (R-MeX) and business customers (B-MeX) score their service performance, with a 50:50 weighting. Table 1 Table 1 shows wholesaler

(by Karma Loveday) The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) has kicked off its first Market Health Check – a review to verify whether retailers active in the Scottish business market are delivering on their commitments under a new Code of Practice and continuing to meet their licence obligations. Beginning this month, the process will take until July 2026, after which WICS will share the results publicly. This will give business customers information on how their sup

(by Karma Loveday) The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has introduced a raft of late changes to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which it said were pro-growth and would result in more new homes, more clean energy, and greater water security. The changes included:  Speeding up approval for large reservoirs by enabling non-water companies to build reservoirs that are automatically considered as nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).  U

(by Karma Loveday) Nearly two-thirds of food and drink manufacturers are feeling a squeeze from water supply and effluent discharge constraints in the form of higher costs and planning delays. That’s according to a survey by water treatment and services specialist Alpheus of its customers and members of the Food and Drink Federation, which include some of the UK’s biggest food and beverage manufacturers. Among the findings were:  61% had experienced increased development cost

(by Karma Loveday) The Government should prepare for at least 2ºC of warming above pre-industrial levels by 2050.  The Climate Change Committee gave that message to floods and water minister Emma Hardy after she requested guidance on setting objectives for climate adaptation. At 2ºC, the Committee said heatwaves become twice as likely; drought risk doubles; peak river flows may increase by 40%; sea levels may rise by up to an additional 25cm; and the wildfire season will beco

(by Verity Mitchell) Northumbrian Water has issued a £300m bond maturing in July 2032, which was around seven times oversubscribed. The bond pays interest of 5.375%, and was issued at a yield equivalent to 120 basis points over Gilts, comfortably inside the initial indicative price of Gilts +140bps. The timing of the bond issue reflects both clarity and upside from the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recently-published initial view of its redetermination of Ofwat’s