(by Karma Loveday) Severn Trent has applied for a drought permit to continue abstraction from the River Derwent over winter even if it has low flows due to more dry weather. The company needs to keep Carsington Reservoir topped up for public water supply. Severn Trent said it did not anticipate harm to wildlife or ecology in the river as winter flows are naturally higher anyway. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Defra have reported using government-b

(by Karma Loveday) Ofwat and Thames Water have agreed that Thames can further defer its decision on whether to apply to the Competition and Markets Authority for a redetermination of its PR24 settlement. The latest deadline to appeal expired last week, but ahead of that the parties agreed on an extension of the deferral – this time with no fixed deadline – to enable Thames to continue its ongoing discussions with creditors. Thames said it remains focused on delivering a recap

(by Karma Loveday) Defra is consulting on enacting Water (Special Measures) Act powers to bolster the Environment Agency’s ability to penalise pollution.  The consultation, open until 3 December, proposed to: Allow the Environment Agency (EA) to use a lower civil standard of proof, instead of criminal, for minor to moderate environmental offences, and set a cap at either £350,000 or £500,000 for penalties issued to the civil standard. Introduce new automatic penalties – “like

(by Karma Loveday) Pollution performance dragged sector results in this year’s Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) down to a new low for the AMP, with companies collectively earning only just over half of the stars available – 19 out of a maximum 36, compared to last year’s 25 stars. Severn Trent alone secured the highest rating of four stars, maintaining the place from last year and indeed from the whole AMP to date. Last year’s other four-star firms, Wessex Water and

(by Karma Loveday) After a couple of years of there being no performance leaders in the sector according to Ofwat, Portsmouth Water alone managed to outpace the rest and climb to ‘leading’ status in the Water company performance (WCPR) report for 2024/25. Eleven companies made the ‘average’ category, with Anglian Water joining last year’s average cohort after pulling itself out of ‘lagging behind’ last year. Five – up from last year’s three – were considered to be lagging be

(by Karma Loveday) Anglian Water and Cambridge Water are running a third consultation on the Fens Reservoir, open until 10 December. The consultation includes an updated design for the main reservoir site which has taken account of feedback from earlier phases of consultation and features proposals for more water-based and land-based recreation and ideas that would provide views across the water. It also includes more information on the associated water treatment and transpo

(by Karma Loveday) MOSL has published the first round of wholesaler business retail service performance results that will be factored in to determine the first BR-MeX payments for water companies. BR-MeX, the business customer and retailer measure of experience, was introduced at PR24. Wholesalers will be rewarded or penalised based on how retailers (R-MeX) and business customers (B-MeX) score their service performance, with a 50:50 weighting. Table 1 Table 1 shows wholesaler

(by Karma Loveday) The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) has kicked off its first Market Health Check – a review to verify whether retailers active in the Scottish business market are delivering on their commitments under a new Code of Practice and continuing to meet their licence obligations. Beginning this month, the process will take until July 2026, after which WICS will share the results publicly. This will give business customers information on how their sup

(by Karma Loveday) The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has introduced a raft of late changes to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which it said were pro-growth and would result in more new homes, more clean energy, and greater water security. The changes included:  Speeding up approval for large reservoirs by enabling non-water companies to build reservoirs that are automatically considered as nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).  U

(by Karma Loveday) Nearly two-thirds of food and drink manufacturers are feeling a squeeze from water supply and effluent discharge constraints in the form of higher costs and planning delays. That’s according to a survey by water treatment and services specialist Alpheus of its customers and members of the Food and Drink Federation, which include some of the UK’s biggest food and beverage manufacturers. Among the findings were:  61% had experienced increased development cost