01 Aug 2023

2022 was a record-breaking year for weather and is a sign of the UK’s changing climate. The Met Office has published the annual ‘State of the UK Climate’ report, examining the weather of 2022 in the context of long-term climate records. The report highlights how the UK’s climate continues to change, with recent decades warmer, […]

01 Aug 2023

A major new Unearthed investigation highlights how sewage is affecting nature. According to Greenpeace, the investigation has revealed that sewage poured into England and Wales’ most-precious conservation sites for more than 300,000 hours in 2022. Over the past five months, Unearthed has been conducting an analysis of data on water companies’ sewage spills in sites […]

01 Aug 2023

Worrying piece in the Guardian, suggesting that messages about recent improvements and massive investment are not getting through to the public Almost a quarter of the UK’s sea swimmers may not take a dip in the ocean this year because of sewage dumping by water companies, according to a poll. Sewage was dumped into waters […]

01 Aug 2023

Targeted green prescribing could save over £635 million per year Wildlife Trusts programmes help tackle anxiety, depression and social isolation “Nature is an essential part of health and social care” –The Wildlife Trust Nature-based health and wellbeing programmes could save hundreds of millions of pounds each year and reduce society’s reliance on the NHS, according […]

01 Aug 2023

Ofwat has concluded that only seven of the 42 PR24 bespoke performance commitments (PCs) submitted by water companies in April are potentially suitable for further development. These come from six firms: South West, Anglian, Thames, SES, Affinity and Southern. Most of the others, which were received from 12 companies in all (four firms opted not […]

01 Aug 2023

Spring, the innovation off-shoot of UKWIR, is seeking sector-wide views on the UK 2050 Water Innovation Strategy (published in 2020), to inform the future direction of the joint document. Spring, the UK & Ireland centre of excellence for water innovation, is inviting water professionals to complete a survey to share their views on how they […]

01 Aug 2023

Across England’s 189,700 miles of road, runoff surface water polluted with microplastics, trace metals, hydrocarbons and other organic pollutants enters our rivers every time it rains. CIWEM has been awarded a grant from the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund to illustrate the scale, nature and impact caused by this pollution, and offer potential solutions. The pollution […]

01 Aug 2023

The government has published indicative guide prices and information on calculating costs for developers buying statutory credits. They start at £42,000 per credit for a low distinctiveness habitat, up to £650,000 for high distinctiveness habitats (lakes). Defra notes that buying statutory biodiversity credits is a last resort option for developers unable to use on-site or off-site units […]