(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