Water UK seeks environmental leadership and reformed regulation in new 2050 vision

The water sector needs to evolve the services it provides, how it interacts with customers and the role it plays in catchments, while regulation and policy need to become outcomes-based, long term focused and address difficult trade offs.

Those are proposals from Water UK, which last week published a discussion paper, Developing a 2050 vision for the water sector. The trade body said the challenges faced by the sector today “are bigger than anything before” and to overcome them will need a “shared endeavour” by companies, regulators/governments, customers/communities and other stakeholders. The vision will provide clarity on “what we are aiming for, and what is needed to get there”.

Water UK has proposed the following vision: “By 2050, we will be globally recognised as an environmental leader; stewarding the improvement of rivers and seas, acting on the climate emergency, and protecting customers’ long- term interests.”

It saw water companies’ role as evolving from being providers of water and sewerage services towards environmental service provision with a service improvement focus, and becoming leaders in managing the local environment and maximising long term value to society. It said it will need to move from seeing customers as bill payers and consumers, to becoming accountable to customers and communities as citizens and partners. And it saw a future in developing partnership and catchment approaches and becoming conveners of stakeholders across water catchments.

Water UK said the sector will “accelerate six strategic responses”:

• demonstrate leadership and act as a role model for positive change;

• drive efficiency and value through a step change in innovation;

• put partnerships at the heart of delivering outcomes;

• transform relationships with customers and communities to jointly deliver outcomes;

• deliver investment where and when it is needed based on robust long-term plans; and

• use market mechanisms and incentives where they can deliver environmental and social objectives.

To complement the action, policy and regulation must be reformed to be more outcomes-based, long term focused and to address difficult trade offs. Water UK said there was already consensus on these principles but that the pace of change needs to be ramped up and in particular further progress made on:

• translating Defra’s 25-year Environment Plan into outcomes-based targets instead of output-based target;

• integrated, local long-term environment planning;

• economic regulation that provides incentives that better match society’s long-term goals and encourages innovative solutions for environmental net-gain; and

• overarching policy that includes clearer long term direction and clear guidance on difficult trade-offs such as between affordability and resilience investment.

The sector will refine its ideas based on feedback and publish a final paper in the summer.