(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