Other stories from last week

(by Karma Loveday)

South Staffordshire Group chief executive Charley Maher will leave the business, and the water sector, at the end of October to take up post as chief executive of Bristol Airport. Mick Horn, currently group chief financial officer, will take on the responsibilities of group CEO alongside his CFO responsibilities while a permanent successor is sought. Barry Hayward, chief commercial officer, will move into the new role of interim chief operating officer. 

WSP has appointed Gavin Stonard as managing director for its Water business in the UK & Ireland. He joins from Costain and brings more than 25 years’ experience across the UK water sector, with a background spanning consultancy, construction and client-side roles.

Galliford Try has appointed Vicky Nugus to the newly-created role as strategic development director for its Environment business. She brings more than 20 years' worth of sector and engineering experience, and most recently held the position of work winning director at Kier.

Severn Trent has appointed Jane Toogood OBE FRSC and Kiet Huynh to its board as independent non-executive directors, with effect from 1 October 2026. Sharmila Nebhrajani OBE will step down from the board on 30 November 2026.

Southern Water has been fined £2.4m with costs of £70,000 for multiple incidents of sewage pollution around Faversham and Whitstable between 2019 and 2021. The Environment Agency pointed out that this follows a £7m fine in July and that other cases are going through the courts. 

Retailer Wave has reported its most successful period of trading and growth, including a 25% increase to its leisure and hotel customer base. New partnerships include with Stoke Park Country Estate, Durham Cricket Club, Blackpool Football Club, Hunstanton Golf Club and Wyboston Lakes Resort.

Anglian Water has reshaped its @One Alliance around three areas – water, water recycling and place-based thinking. The latter, worth £750m of the the AMP8 £3bn capital programme, is taking a catchment-wide approach to multiple projects and investment, to improve coordination, identify efficiencies and deliver better outcomes across whole catchments. Areas targeted for investment include Cotton Valley, Colchester, Wymondham and Ipswich.

Thames Water welcomed its largest ever cohort of 145 apprentices between May and September, selecting 145 candidates from 9,908 applications. The roles span engineering, finance, data, project management, communications, repair and maintenance. According to industry benchmark JobCrowd, Thames ranks in the national top ten for both apprenticeship and graduate programmes, placing first in energy and utilities for apprentices and second for graduates.

Meanwhile United Utilities has opened applications for its 2027 graduate and intern programme. There are 50 graduate roles and 15 internship opportunities available across several business areas including engineering, environment, commercial, and data and analytics.

Almost 4,000 households in the Crawley area have been auto-enrolled onto reduced water tariffs under a partnership between Crawley Borough Council, South East Water, SES Water and Southern Water. Households receiving qualifying benefits have been matched securely with water company support schemes. South East Water said its customers alone will save total of £23,502 on their drinking water bills.

UKWIR is moving to a phased research programme, releasing projects in three tranches across 2026 and early 2027. This staggered timeline is intended to give the water sector and supply chain more flexible opportunities to contribute their expertise throughout the year. Expressions of interest are now open for five new UKWIR research projects: 

• Leakage – Climate-related bursts: impacts, research needs and mitigations 

• Wastewater – Accommodating growth at sites at the treatment limit of technology 

• Drinking water – Orthophosphate dosing in lead-free water networks: risks and decision support 

• Water resources – Water for data and emerging technologies 

• Wastewater – River restoration for wastewater nutrient schemes: decision framework.

Further expressions of interest will be opened later in the year. 

Hundreds of people turned out for a protest for clean water at Stormont on Saturday, following a fourth summer of blue-green algae accumulation in Lough Neagh. The blooms, which are sparked by agricultural, sewage and septic tank pollution, affect drinking water supplies, wildlife, recreation and business.

Ofwat is consulting until 16 October on its minded-to-approve decision on Wholesale Retail Code Change Proposal CPW167, for implementation in May 2027. This would mandate the use of the Bilaterals Hub for communications on Guaranteed Service Standard (GSS) payment notifications. Ofwat commented: “Retailers need accurate and timely information from wholesalers to identify customers entitled to GSS payments and to meet the statutory payment timescales. Current notification arrangements between wholesalers and retailers are fragmented. Consultation evidence identified inconsistent or incomplete information, mismatches between notifications and related payments, insufficient SPID-level detail and differing practices, all of which can increase reconciliation work and the risk of delay or error.”