(by Karma Loveday) The Welsh Government is cutting its own path to water reform, including by rejecting the idea of an integrated regulator for Wales. Instead, in its Green Paper: Shaping the future of water governance in Wales , it proposed creating a Wales-specific combined economic regulator and system planner, that continues to interface with separate environmental and drinking water quality regulators.  The Green Paper is the Welsh Government’s policy response to the rec

(by Karma Loveday) Leading environmental and nature-friendly farming organisations, including River Action, Nature-Friendly Farming Network, The Rivers Trusts, Surfers Against Sewage, Wildlife and Countryside Link, WWF-UK, Wildfarmed, RSPB and the Soil Association, have written to the environment secretary calling for urgent government action to tackle agricultural water pollution . They pointed out that agriculture is now recognised as a significant a source of water polluti

(by Karma Loveday) Affinity Water and its partners will begin the phase two public consultation on the Grand Union Canal Transfer (GUCT) scheme on Wednesday (11 February). Running until 2 April, the consultation will focus on giving communities along the scheme’s proposed route the opportunity to contribute their thoughts and opinions. The consultation includes 12 public meetings to be held at venues along the route through March. Natasha Coackley, head of strategic resource

(by Karma Loveday) The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has reprised the pre-2005 name for customer representative committees in launching its newly-formed consumer panels. These Water Voice consumer panels are part of government plans to strengthen accountability through ensuring water companies listen and respond to their customers. Sixteen regional Water Voice panels have been set up — one for each water company in England and Wales. Each panel brings together around 50 cu

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has confirmed that Southern Water has completed all the enforcement actions resulting from the 2019 investigation into the company. The enforcement action resulted in Southern funding penalties and redress of £126m, alongside delivering improvements to the operation of its wastewater treatment works, compliance and governance processes. Ofwat is now requiring Southern Water to complete outstanding work identified since 2019. Southern Water’s shareho

(by Karma Loveday) Defra has published a PFAS Plan, setting out the Government’s overall approach to tackling forever chemicals. The plan said the long-term vision is to “work in partnership, taking a science-based and proportionate approach, to reduce and minimise the impacts of harmful PFAS on public health and the environment, including through the transition to safer alternatives”. It sought to meet this vision through three work pillars:  Understanding and identifying th

(by Karma Loveday) Amidst a focus on asset health in the Water White Paper, UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) has published the outputs from its work to identify A common definition and calculation of asset health . The project provides a framework and guidance which can be commonly applied to bring greater alignment to the assessment and management of asset health. UKWIR noted: “Understanding the health of assets has uses in both investment planning within water companies,

(by Karma Loveday) Portsmouth Water has published Introducing effective supervisory regulation, a report by Frank Grimshaw of Fast Track Squared, which incorporates the company’s own thoughts on the subject. This is presented as a contribution to the post White Paper debate. Portsmouth Water said it strongly supports the introduction of supervision, sees lots of benefits, but appreciates risks that need to be guarded against. These include extra complexity if supervision is

(by Karma Loveday) Small businesses in Scotland ranked water as the sector they are second-to-least satisfied with (see chart), in a survey by Consumer Scotland. The watchdog surveyed 700 small businesses (those with under 50 employees) about their engagement in and satisfaction with various services, from utilities to building and professional services. Key findings included:  Small businesses are just as likely as individual consumers — and in some cases, more likely — to

(by Karma Loveday) Thames Water’s Customer Challenge Group (CCG) has recommended that customer trust is monitored as a core performance measure — “not as a proxy for all external noise, but as a way of focusing attention on the quality and consistency of controllable actions that matter most to customers”. That appeared in the group’s 2025 annual report, which gave Thames a mixed review. Noting the extremely challenging context — featuring refinancing, a pending price appeal,