(by Verity Mitchell) The chief executive of Thames Water, Chris Weston, has again stated publicly in an interview that he considers that the current targets set by Ofwat for leakage and pollutions reduction are unrealistic. He explained the management team “wanted to do better” in regard to pollutions reduction, but argued that the leakage target was “so far in excess of what we are capable of doing”. Weston also continued to commend Thames Water creditors’ recapitalisation p

(by Karma Loveday) Around 1.8m households in England and Wales (6.8%) are in water poverty – spending more than 5% of income after housing costs on water services – according to research by the University of York for the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) using 2024/25 national household survey data. Bills for this group exceeded the affordability threshold by a median of around £337 per year. Affordability challenges are not evenly distributed across England and Wales. The stu

(by Karma Loveday) The Mayor of London has published a Clean Rivers and Waterways Plan – a ten-year vision for waterways that are cleaner, richer in wildlife, easier to access and better connected to the communities around them. The plan – which the Mayor’s office described as “the beginning of one of the world's most ambitious urban waterway clean-up efforts” – contains 48 actions and 17 goals, to be delivered by 2036. Priorities include making London a “swimmable” city; no

(by Karma Loveday) Clean water campaigner River Action has called for all abstraction licences to be reviewed and updated, and for industrial users to have clear plans to drive water efficiency – as competition for water intensifies and hosepipe bans affect 40% of households. It said: “We cannot allow essential public water supplies, sustainable food production and healthy rivers to lose out to wasteful commercial users because the Government failed to plan ahead.” A River Ac

(by Karma Loveday) Last week, the Environment Agency (EA) formally moved the following areas into drought status: East Anglia; Hertfordshire and the whole of London; Thames Valley; Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; Devon and Cornwall; West Midlands; and Wessex (covering Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire). Natural Resources Wales also extended its partial drought designation to the whole of Wales. The EA called this a “flash drought” – a fast developing situ

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat today opens the second round of its Water Efficiency Lab (WEL2) competition, which offers up to £5m (£1.5m per winner) for tools to tackle customer-side leakage. The regulator explained that leaks in homes and businesses (from both internal plumbing and external supply pipes within property boundaries) account for 1-1.5bn litres of water a day – around a quarter of all water lost to leaks in England and Wales. This costs customers £1-1.6bn a year. In

(by Karma Loveday) S&P has downgraded South East Water (SEW) debt to BB+ from BBB-, with negative outlook. At the same time, the ratings agency revised its standalone credit profile on SEW down to bb from bb+ and assigned a recovery rating of ‘3’ to SEW's debt, reflecting its expectation of 65% recovery in the event of a default. S&P explained that SEW’s weak operational performance, caused by supply interruptions, has materially worsened its profitability, despite strong rev

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat is consulting until 10 September on its implementation of the Outturn Adjustment Mechanism (OAM) – a PR24 mechanism to recalibrate investor returns in the event there is systematic out or underperformance across the sector. The OAM is triggered when there is a significant difference between the sector's outturn returns and what was expected. Under current arrangements, this is where the performance of median companies passes a threshold of 50bps impa

(by Karma Loveday) The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation will have powers to plan, fund and deliver water infrastructure. That’s according to Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, Parliamentary under secretary for housing, communities and local government, who last week spoke in a House of Lords debate on the future of Cambridgeshire and the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation. Multiple peers raised water supply and wastewater capacity constraints as fundamental challen

(by Karma Loveday) Vast differences in the complaints performance of different retailers persisted in 2025-26, according to the Consumer Council for Water’s (CCW) annual Business Customer Complaints Report. Smaller suppliers put in the best (ADSM, Source for Business, Water for Business) and worst (Clear Business Water, SES Business Water) performances. Of the big four retailers, Wave and Business Stream performed the best (see chart). Across the market, complaint numbers to