Other stories from last week

(by Karma Loveday)

Defra and Northern Ireland’s Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs have selected Dame Helen Ghosh as the preferred candidate to succeed Dame Glenys Stacey as chair of the Office for Environmental Protection. The environmental Select Committees will hold a joint pre-appointment scrutiny hearing and, if approved, Dame Helen will take up post on 1 June. 

Dame Helen has been Master of Balliol College, Oxford, since 2018 and her previous experience includes as director general of the National Trust, director general at HMRC, permanent secretary at both Defra and the Home Office, and trustee on the board of Action for Conservation.

United Utilities has been fined £60,000, with costs of over £24,000, for failing to obtain a permit to release fish into inland waters. This is the first time a water company has been sentenced under The Keeping and Introduction of Fish (England and River Esk Catchment Area) Regulations 2015.

The Environment Agency explained that 30,000 fish were released while United Utilities was conducting a scour valve test on High Rid Reservoir in Greater Manchester. “This stranded them in the too small and unsuitable environment of Bessy Brook, with fatal consequences for over 16,000 fish." They were killed by the high-speed discharge; there was no pollution. The remaining fish were rescued and returned to High Rid Reservoir.

Andy Brown, the Environment Agency’s water industry regulation manager for the North West, said: “With this regulatory first, we are letting water companies know they must abide by all legislative requirements.” 

Ofwat is consulting until 27 May on modifying Condition B of the licences of Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern and South East Water, to take account of the Competition and Markets Authority’s decision to add five schemes to the PR24 large schemes gated process. Two are Northumbrian schemes; the other three companies have one scheme each.

SES Water said it has cut the cost of rolling out smart metering by 70% by transforming existing meters into a fully connected digital network.

Using B4T’s Jellyfish Bridge technology, in four months a team of two engineers deployed 5,000 Jellyfish devices across Sutton, converting legacy infrastructure at 30,000 properties into a scalable smart network. Jellyfish is a battery-powered device that connects to up to eight semi-smart meters via short-range radio. It compresses, encrypts and transmits data over Vodafone’s NB-IoT cellular network, and has delivered 93% connectivity and 92% message delivery rates for hourly data collection.

SES argued the approach offers a significant financial advantage, enabling it to accelerate digital transformation without the high capital costs typically associated with smart meter rollouts.

M Group, in partnership with EU Skills, has launched a sector entry pilot scheme to help tackle the metering skills gap in the water industry. People not in education, employment or training and those facing significant barriers to the jobs market were targeted and seven candidates selected to undertake a four-week domestic meter training programme on M Group’s Yorkshire Water contract. This was funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Six subsequently took roles within M Group. The ambition is for this training programme to become a recognised pathway, offered by EU Skills and DWP across the sector, to support greater inclusion and resilience in the workforce.

The business retail market’s Strategic Panel has approved the Open Data Programme to proceed to a ‘proof of value' stage. This followed a recommendation from change specialist Cross 8, which conducted research into the benefits case and proof of concept for greater data sharing last year. Programme sponsor and MOSL CIO Simon Powell explained the Cross 8 work revealed both benefits and complexity, so the Panel has asked MOSL to move forward with a ‘proof of value’ phase before committing to further work.

Anglian Water has opened an office in Norwich, in recognition that around £1bn of its AMP8 investment is destined for Norfolk. The company said it and its @one Alliance already have more than 700 employees who live in Norfolk and commute to existing offices in Cambridgeshire. The new Norwich hub will offer a better work-life balance for employees, alongside closer connections to key local investment schemes, such as the major upgrade planned for Whitlingham Water Recycling Centre which treats Norwich’s wastewater.