(by Karma Loveday) The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has identified possible failures by Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) to comply with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Regulations. It has sent both authorities information notices setting out the details of the suspected failures. These relate to the preparation, approval and implementation of programmes of measures under the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) published in 2022. The notices also identif

(by Karma Loveday) Treated wastewater will be converted into tokenised credits that businesses can purchase to offset their water usage and support water resource sustainability, under a pioneering initiative from Wessex Water parent the YTL Group. YTL Enterprises (YTLE), the commercial innovation arm of YTL Construction UK, has partnered with Swiss technology company Hypercube to issue the UK’s first blockchain-verified water reuse credit using WTR, Hypercube’s water credit

(by Karma Loveday) 70% of female members – tens of thousands – surveyed by the GMB union said their personal protective equipment was ill-fitting. 58% were uncomfortable, 22% embarrassed, 24% felt unsafe and 18% said they couldn’t do their job properly. The union urged employers to adopt the new British Standard on inclusive protective equipment, and ministers to update health and safety laws to ensure all workers are issued with properly fitting PPE.  Anglian Water’s chie

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales have published detailed guidance for water companies on how to prepare and publish Pollution Incident Reduction Plans (PIRPs). These were made statutory under the Water Special Measures Act. The first batch of plans is required in April 2026, and from 2027, companies also have to produce annual implementation reports demonstrating their year‑on‑year progress to cut pollution incidents. The plans must s

(by Karma Loveday) MPs piled pressure on the Government to take action on Thames Water, at one of the first Parliamentary debates of the year on 6 January. Led by the Liberal Democrats, the debate hauled up a catalogue of indictments about the troubled company. These included on the familiar operational themes of leakage, pollutions, sewer flooding, poor service and price increases — as well as the now equally familiar financial themes of high debt, high costs, emergency fun

(by Verity Mitchell) The economic regulator of publicly owned Scottish Water, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS), has published its Annual Report for 2024-2025. During the year it published its methodology for the Strategic Review of Charges (SRC27), which will determine investment levels and customer charges for water and sewerage services from 2027 to 2033. It published detailed business plan guidance and comprehensive data tables, providing a baseline agains

(by Verity Mitchell) Southern Water has confirmed that it has secured additional equity from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management. The investors, as pledged, have now committed a further £245m of equity, taking the equity committed since July 2025 to £900m, and the total invested since Southern Water was purchased in 2021 to £2.55bn. Over that period, no dividend has been paid - and none will be paid before 2030. This investment programme includes, amongst other things

(by Karma Loveday) The latest base costs modelling from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would leave the companies challenging their price settlements – and the wider water sector if it was applied across the board – with lower allowances than Ofwat’s final determination (FD) and the CMA’s October provisional determination (PD). The CMA published a Base costs modelling working paper last week, which is open for consultation until 7 January. The outcome was: “Our u

(by Karma Loveday) Retailers have called on Ofwat to correct or withdraw a statement in the Business Customer Insight Survey 2025 that they see as “misleading and disingenuous”. The issue concerns the statement that: “In 2025, just 15% of all business customers were satisfied (net) with the water industry compared to 60% in 2020 and 64% in 2019.” In a letter to Ofwat responding to the second consultation on the Retail Exit Code, the UK Water Retailer Council (UKWRC), represen

(by Karma Loveday) By deploying a combination of interventions, non-household customers could be helped to save more water than specified in Environment Act targets. That’s according to a report from Baringa, commissioned by the Strategic Panel and Retailer Wholesaler Group’s (RWG) Water Efficiency Subgroup on how to incentivise business customers to cut demand. This is part of a suite of work from the RWG on a Water Efficiency Roadmap.   Baringa identified eight actions and