Lack of investment has stifled water quality progress, government accepts

The government accepted that not enough progress has been made in improving the water environment as it responded to the Office for Environmental Protection’s (OEP) report on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive regulations and River Basin Management Planning.

In its policy response to the OEP’s 15 recommendations, made earlier this year, Defra said: “The government accepts that not enough progress has been made in meeting the Framework’s objective for water quality, to restore water bodies to good ecological status or good ecological potential, and that this is due to a lack of investment and action over the last 15 years since the first River Basin Management Plans were published.”

It said cleaning up the water environment is now a priority for Defra, and it pointed to its upcoming review of water regulation as a means to deliver transformational change.

The response set out specific responses to OEP recommendations, and emphasised: “The government will continue to consider these suggestions and believes we must look again at the regulatory framework itself and the purpose it was originally designed for.”