(by Karma Loveday) River Action has started its legal challenge against Ofwat for allegedly allowing some customers to pay twice for infrastructure improvements. At a hearing last week in Manchester Civil Justice Centre, River Action claimed Ofwat acted unlawfully when it implemented its policy that customers must not pay twice. The clean river campaigner said that in effect, some households would pay for infrastructure improvements to achieve environmental compliance, which

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat has written to water company regulatory directors inviting them to submit proposals for additional enhancement allowances to support investment linked to demand growth – notably relating to data centres and housing targets. This followed company responses to a March 2025 Ofwat letter about enabling growth, in which the industry highlighted the need for funding mechanisms. Ofwat will consider proposals through the PR24 cost change process submission wi

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has published a performance-related executive pay (PRP) assessment for 2024-5. This is the first year in which Ofwat has had the legislative powers to both prohibit PRP and apply the PRP cost recovery mechanism. The PRP Prohibition Rule is focused on whether a water company should pay PRP or not, and the recovery mechanism is focused on when customers should fund PRP. PRP is prohibited when a company has: breached a principal statutory duty; receive

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has published its Monitoring Financial Resilience report for 2024-2025, in which it sets out its assessment of water company financial resilience. The companies are placed in four categories by Ofwat, as shown in the table: Thames remains in Ofwat’s Turnaround Oversight Regime. The regulator said it “expects Thames to deliver a credible and sustainable plan” to restore financial resilience. Southern and South East both remain in the Action Require

(by Karma Loveday) Just over half (52%) of business customers are now aware they can choose their water retailer, up from just under half (48%) last year. But contracting levels remained broadly stable on 2023-24, with around 3% switching in the last 12 months and 4% renegotiating. That’s according to Ofwat’s 2024-25 State of the Market report and Business Customer Insight Survey , which was conducted in partnership with the Consumer Council for Water. Both awareness levels a

(by Karma Loveday) The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) has called on the Government to make “a fresh water future” a reality when it publishes its White Paper following the Cunliffe Review. In a 2025 report, updating on progress and priorities emerging since the January 2024 publication A Fresh Water Future, CIWEM praised government actions to date, including the Water (Special Measures) Act, commissioning the Cunliffe Review and supporting

(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