(by Karma Loveday) Affinity Water has appointed Mark Garth as its new chief executive, succeeding Keith Haslett. Garth has worked for United Utilities for eight years, most recently as director of environment and formerly as operations director for wastewater services. Before that, he spent time in various roles at Severn Trent and at SP Energy Networks. A start date is yet to be confirmed, but will be in the first half of 2026. Haslett is leaving to take up post as chief exe

(by Karma Loveday and Verity Mitchell) The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has invited South East Water (SEW) to “correct the formal record” after serious inconsistencies were aired in the accounts provided by the company and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) at a hearing last week about the pre-Christmas Tunbridge Wells outage affecting around 24,000 customers. In a letter from Committee chair Alistair Carmichael to SEW chair Chris Train, the former raised

(by Karma Loveday) The National Audit Office has set out a series of recommendations for green regulation as it is reformed. In a new report, Environmental regulation , the NAO identified a number of challenges and hindrances that have held back regulation back to date. These included:  Defra has not done enough to support a strategic, joined-up approach rather than reacting to short-term, high‑profile issues. An overly cautious and risk-averse culture in Defra, the Environme

(by Karma Loveday) The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has identified possible failures by Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) to comply with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Regulations. It has sent both authorities information notices setting out the details of the suspected failures. These relate to the preparation, approval and implementation of programmes of measures under the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) published in 2022. The notices also identif

(by Karma Loveday) Treated wastewater will be converted into tokenised credits that businesses can purchase to offset their water usage and support water resource sustainability, under a pioneering initiative from Wessex Water parent the YTL Group. YTL Enterprises (YTLE), the commercial innovation arm of YTL Construction UK, has partnered with Swiss technology company Hypercube to issue the UK’s first blockchain-verified water reuse credit using WTR, Hypercube’s water credit

(by Karma Loveday) 70% of female members – tens of thousands – surveyed by the GMB union said their personal protective equipment was ill-fitting. 58% were uncomfortable, 22% embarrassed, 24% felt unsafe and 18% said they couldn’t do their job properly. The union urged employers to adopt the new British Standard on inclusive protective equipment, and ministers to update health and safety laws to ensure all workers are issued with properly fitting PPE.  Anglian Water’s chie

(by Karma Loveday) The Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales have published detailed guidance for water companies on how to prepare and publish Pollution Incident Reduction Plans (PIRPs). These were made statutory under the Water Special Measures Act. The first batch of plans is required in April 2026, and from 2027, companies also have to produce annual implementation reports demonstrating their year‑on‑year progress to cut pollution incidents. The plans must s

(by Karma Loveday) MPs piled pressure on the Government to take action on Thames Water, at one of the first Parliamentary debates of the year on 6 January. Led by the Liberal Democrats, the debate hauled up a catalogue of indictments about the troubled company. These included on the familiar operational themes of leakage, pollutions, sewer flooding, poor service and price increases — as well as the now equally familiar financial themes of high debt, high costs, emergency fun

(by Verity Mitchell) The economic regulator of publicly owned Scottish Water, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS), has published its Annual Report for 2024-2025. During the year it published its methodology for the Strategic Review of Charges (SRC27), which will determine investment levels and customer charges for water and sewerage services from 2027 to 2033. It published detailed business plan guidance and comprehensive data tables, providing a baseline agains

(by Verity Mitchell) Southern Water has confirmed that it has secured additional equity from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management. The investors, as pledged, have now committed a further £245m of equity, taking the equity committed since July 2025 to £900m, and the total invested since Southern Water was purchased in 2021 to £2.55bn. Over that period, no dividend has been paid - and none will be paid before 2030. This investment programme includes, amongst other things