(by Karma Loveday) Scottish Water retained the top spot it held last year in British Water’s 2025 Water Company Performance Survey, which asks contractors, consultants and suppliers to rate their clients’ performance in 12 areas over the last 12 months. The 12 areas are: contract approach, attitude, professional qualities, impact on supply chain, innovation, procurement, following policy, communication, partners/main contractors, AMP transition, working digitally and sustaina

(by Karma Loveday) United Utilities – in partnership with the Environment Agency, the Lake District National Park Authority, Matt Staniek’s campaign group Save Windermere, the Love Windermere coalition, and Westmorland and Furness Council – has unveiled a uniquely ambitious plan to remove all wastewater discharges from Lake Windermere. ‘Only Rainwater into Windermere’ (ORiW) involves building 138km of new sewerage network to intercept all discharges from the ten wastewater pl

(by Karma Loveday) Northumbrian Water held on to first place position in this year’s C-MeX results on household customer experience. Its score of 80.36 for 2024/5 slipped to 75.17 in 2025/6, but it nonetheless continued to lead the pack. Portsmouth Water regained its top three position after coming fourth last year, to take second place with 75.00. Wessex fell from second place to third, with 74.54. Welsh Water left the top three, falling back to sixth. At the bottom of the t

(by Karma Loveday) Lord John Hutton would chair the Thames Water board, if the London & Valley Water Consortium acquisition and recapitalisation is allowed to proceed. Mike McTighe, who has been leading the recapitalisation proposal, would be vice-chair and would play a hands-on role in the operational transformation, including chairing a new Thames Water Turnaround Committee. The announcements followed earlier outline board appointments for a revamped Thames. Lord Hutton ser

(by Verity Mitchell) Ofwat has published Monitoring financial resilience, its report assessing the stability of the water companies in England and Wales for the year to March 2026. Although it is backwards-looking, it provides interesting comparative data. Shareholders have injected £1.8bn of equity into the companies and have pledged a further £1.7bn. There have been new investors too: Asterion and EQT have taken stakes in Southern Water and Yorkshire Water respectively. As

(by Karma Loveday) Water Resources South East (WRSE) has published a summary of the progress made in 2025/26 in delivering its regional plan (RP24) for 2025-2075. The table summarises the key developments. Good progress was made in some areas, notably on strategic schemes to increase supply, and on the smart meter rollout. Per capita consumption is lower than forecast in RP24. Other developments helping the supply-demand balance included that population and property growth

(by Karma Loveday) Almost three-quarters (74%) of Ofwat staff that are members of the PCS union and took part in a ballot on industrial action have voted to go on strike. Turnout was 89%, and an even larger majority (91%) voted in favour of action short of strike. PCS said it will now write to Ofwat and ministers to demand urgent assurances about members’ employment and working conditions. If these assurances are not provided, it will implement a programme of strike action an

(by Karma Loveday) The Water Industry Commission for Scotland has slightly delayed the publication of its 2027-33 Final Determination for Scottish Water until 12 November, from 29 October. The regulator said it had received 51 responses to its draft, some of which “included additional information and evidence that was not available when the Draft Determination was prepared”. The extra time will enable these responses to be considered thoroughly, and allow for “further conside

(by Karma Loveday) Thames Water is seeking an extra £2.4bn from its creditors to extend its liquidity to Autumn 2027. It said in a stock exchange statement that the £3bn facility previously committed by creditors will only last until the end of this year or early next year (£2.65bn has already been drawn down), but that the company “does not expect to complete its recapitalisation process ahead of this date”. Hence it needs an “upsize,” to be accessed in tranches over the c

(by Karma Loveday) Restoring rivers could yield a seven-fold cost benefit, according to a new report from The Wildlife Trusts, Trent Rivers Trust and Intact Insurance. The Rivers 2040 Vision assessed the impact of restoring the entirety of the River Trent, England’s longest river from source to sea – on nature, the economy and local communities. It found that an investment of £43m a year over 30 years could generate £10bn in economic benefit, meaning every £1 spent would yiel