Other stories from last week

(by Karma Loveday)

Requiring water company bosses to take a dip in a river has made it onto Count Binface’s list of manifesto commitments for the Clacton by-election. It sits alongside other policies including restoring the price of an ice cream with flake to 99p, turning the Millennium Dome into a nature reserve, and building at least one affordable home. 

Defra has confirmed, post consultation, that it will proceed with its Special Measures Act plans to strengthen and speed-up the fines the Environment Agency can impose on water companies for pollution. The watchdog will in future be able to use the civil standard of proof (rather than the higher criminal standard currently needed) to impose variable monetary penalties of up to £500,000. New automatic penalties – described as “like a speeding ticket” – will also be available for clearly defined breaches, such as failure to report as expected or more than three discharges from an emergency overflow in a year. Such offences will incur a £10,000 payment, which would double if the company failed to pay within 28 days. Defra modelling suggested the changes could cost the sector between £50m and £67m annually, based on company performance in recent years.

Northumbrian Water hosted its tenth Innovation Festival in Newcastle last week, drawing in over 4,000 visitors from 36 countries. The theme for 2026 was 'The Power of 10’. This was all about maximising, multiplying and making things as powerful as they can be for customers. 

Sprints throughout the week sought to develop ideas and grow networks of industry experts in areas including regulation, technology, circular economy and digital. Among the many thematic sprints were those on collaborative catchments, blockage avoidance, redefining industrial water efficiency, “putting the ‘super’ into supervision”, and the future of asset data.

Northumbrian Water has around 150 projects under consideration, from the pooling and sharing of knowledge. The festival equates to some 50m billable hours of consultancy. On the final day, all learning is summarised and sifted to be used immediately or noted for the medium term. Some ideas are quickly adopted at low cost, others require seed capital, while some substantive finance which may require regulatory support.

Subject to some specified actions, Ofwat has approved Thames Water’s ‘Lower Thames to West London Reservoirs Strategic Resource Option’ to progress to Gate B of its new Major Water Infrastructure Programme. The scheme seeks to build a new raw water transfer between Thames’ reservoirs north and south of the River Thames, to increase operational resilience (these are currently not connected). The transfer would take the form of a tunnel, abstracting at Surbiton before running west to the Queen Mary reservoir. The tunnel would also connect to the outlet of the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir to provide a transfer from the southern to the northern reservoirs.

Ofwat has named ‘chemicals of concern’ as the first mission of its Water Innovation Missions programme – a subdivision of its Innovation Fund, previously called ‘Collaborative Challenge’  that seeks to drive coordinated action around critical shared goals. The mission statement is: “By 2030, drive a coordinated, system-wide shift from reactive treatment to proactive, shared management of chemicals of concern – across the water cycle and beyond – enabled by shared data, collaboration and scalable solutions to deliver chemically safer water for people, communities and the environment.” Ofwat has convened a Chemicals of Concern Advisory Panel, which met for the first time in June. On the list for future missions are emerging sludge management techniques and managing rainwater better.

Ofwat’s interim executive director for delivery, Helen Campbell, has issued a statement reminding companies that their Annual Performance Reports need to be published by 15 July, and must set out their remuneration decisions and the reasoning behind them. The reports feed directly into Ofwat’s sector-wide performance assessment, which includes determining whether companies have complied with its bonus rule. Campbell noted that Ofwat is planning to review the rule in the future and take a comprehensive look at its impact to see if it is delivering against the original objective to restore public trust in the sector. If it is not, changes will be made. Changes will not prevent Ofwat from “tightening requirements if companies’ behaviours do not to align with the rule’s objectives, or those of the legislation that created it,” she stated.

px Group, an operator of large industrial and commercial sites, has established px Water to provide water and wastewater services to its existing customer portfolio and its own chemicals park, Saltend. px Water has applied for retail licences, which Ofwat is consulting on until 3 August. The group’s aim is to create added value through integrated services, fast and transparent metering and billing, and a high standard of customer service. It already operates px Energy Solutions and Coulomb Energy Supply, and px Water will share access to the staff, process and functions of these established operations.