Defra adds environmental enhancement to its strategic priorities for Ofwat

Defra has added a new strategic priority for Ofwat – to protect and enhance the environment.

The department is consulting until 27 September on a new Strategic Policy Statement (SPS) for Ofwat, which sets out the government’s strategic priorities for economic regulation of the water sector in England. Along with the three existing (2017) priorities – for resilience, customer protection and markets – Defra added a new priority to protect and enhance the environment. It said: “Ofwat should drive water companies to be more ambitious in their environmental planning and delivery to contribute towards the priorities set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan. Ofwat should drive water companies to improve their day to day environmental performance to enhance quality of the water environment.”

In her comments, environment minister Rebecca Pow highlighted storm overflows in particular. She said: “Water companies have a holistic role in delivering improvements to our environment – through delivering greater flood resilience, protecting water resources and addressing water quality issues. We want to see them deliver on this in the round through work to tackle climate change. Our priorities for Ofwat build on the work I have already undertaken to reduce harm from storm overflows and sets a clear expectation for water companies to significantly reduce the frequency and volume of sewage discharges from storm overflows.”

Other priorities Defra has proposed for Ofwat include:

• a resilient water sector – Ofwat should challenge the water sector to plan, invest and operate its water and wastewater services to secure the needs of current and future customers, in a way which delivers value to customers, the environment and wider society over the long term;

• serving and protecting customers better– Ofwat should improve customer services and complaints handling to push water companies to provide a better and fairer water service for all wile driving water companies to meet the needs of vulnerable customers, including ‘transiently’ vulnerable ones; and

• markets that deliver for customers – Ofwat should consider how competition and other market-based measures might increase benefits for customers while encouraging markets to boost innovation, efficiency, and long-term sustainable investment across the sector.

Director of policy at the National Infrastructure Commission,,Giles Stevens, said: “We welcome the focus on long term environmental and climate resilience, which reflects the emphasis we have recommended should be baked into such duties across all sectors. The proposed statement builds on recent examples of closer collaboration between regulators to meet the pressures of the future, particularly improving drought resilience by enhancing the capacity of the water supply system as the Commission has recommended. We hope that this strategic and coordinated approach can be replicated for drainage and wastewater to meet the challenge of improving the aquatic environment and believe that the draft statement indicates an important step in this direction.

“We further welcome the continued commitment to increasing competition where feasible, which should also be applied to the provision of strategic infrastructure, recognising the need to protect customers’ interests while meeting growing future challenges.”