(by Karma Loveday) Business leaders should treat water continuity as a board-level operational risk, comparable to energy and IT. That’s according to Water Direct’s State of UK water resilience 2025-26 report, which mapped indicators showing risk is increasing. These included: Supply interruptions – Water supply interruptions are worsening year-on-year at the sector level, and are still materially above the five minute regulatory performance expectation.  Capacity loss – The

(by Karma Loveday) Defra is consulting for six weeks on the designation of 13 new bathing water sites, including one on the River Thames. Successful designation would bring the total number of sites in England to 464. The sites under consultation —  many already popular spots for recreation —  are:  Little Shore, Amble, Northumberland – a crescent of sand between the River Coquet and the North Sea which is popular with locals.  Newton and Noss Creeks, Devon – a narrow tidal i

(by Karma Loveday) To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2026, and to support recruitment of 5,000 apprentices by 2030, the water industry took time last week to highlight the opportunities available to train in the sector. Some examples were: Water UK told personal stories of those training in engineering, human resources, data science roles and many more, at water companies across the country.  United Utilities hosted water minister Emma Hardy on a tour of its technical trai

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat is consulting until 10 March on its ‘minded to’ decision to enable MOSL to share business user water consumption data with authorised third parties, where customer consent has been evidenced. Under amendment CPM060 to the Market Arrangements Code and CPW156 to the Wholesale Retail Code, third parties will be able to submit a single request to the market operator covering a customers' property portfolio, rather than needing to submit multiple requests

(by Karma Loveday) Defra has confirmed that falling block tariffs for large water users will be phased out between now and 2030. This was a correction to the Water White Paper, which said the tariffs would go by April 2026. The Scottish Government has published regulations banning the sale and supply of wet wipes containing plastic . These will come into effect on 11 August 2027. There will be exemptions for medical and industrial uses, as well as business-to-business sales

(by Verity Mitchell) Severn Trent has issued a trading statement for the period to 10 February 2026. It reported strong investment momentum for the current year. It expects to deliver towards the top end of its capital investment guidance range of £1.7bn-£1.9bn. The strategic rationale for accelerated investment is that improved performance will generate regulatory rewards more quickly. Trading has been in line with expectations. The new chief executive, James Jesic, said: “W

(by Verity Mitchell) The Environment Agency (EA) has reported that it has increased its water enforcement workforce almost fivefold — from 41 roles in 2023 to 195 by March 2026, with a further increase planned later in 2026. The watchdog added that it has already delivered over 8,000 of the 10,000 water company inspections planned for the 2025/26 financial year, resulting in over 4,700 individual improvement actions for water companies, including repairing sewage works and u

(by Verity Mitchell) The chief executive of South East Water, David Hinton, has revealed that the outage at its Pembury plant, which caused extended supply outages in Tunbridge Wells in November/December, cost the company around £30m. He was addressing customers at a Consumer Council for Water meeting in early February. He also shared that, had the company installed a backup form of water coagulation on site at a cost of around £20,000, the issue would likely not have happene

(by Verity Mitchell) Thames Water has announced that it has now drawn £1.426bn of its £1.5bn super senior facility. Following consultation with its creditors, Thames can now take advantage of further funds under an accordion facility. Thames’ subsidiary, the super senior issuer, has launched a process to allocate £833m — this being the first tranche of the accordion amount of £750m, augmented by a further £83m from deferred commitments and commitments which belong to the defa

(by Verity Mitchell) In our review of the White Paper ( The end of the beginning for investors , The UK Water Report, February 2026), we noted that there have already been inflows of equity and debt to support transformational investment in AMP8. With the Government taking responsibility for the water sector and ending the blame game, might new capital providers emerge? The growing reputational stability of the sector is likely to attract new private capital market investors.