29 Apr 2025
Image description: An aerial shot of a house-build in progress, with scaffolding around the property and two builders on the roof. Image by Steffen Coonan / Pexels. Planning reforms aim to slash delivery time and cost The Labour Government has said their planning reforms will “slash a year off infrastructure delivery”, after announcing it […]
11 Mar 2025
Photo by Steffen Coonan Last year, the UK government announced plans to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England. However, a new report by Public First warns that 61,600 homes are unlikely to materialise in the next five years due to water scarcity, with local authorities in the east and south-east of England facing […]
15 Jul 2024
A coalition of NGOs has called on the new UK Government to expand the title and function of the role of UK Special Representative for Climate Change to Special Representative for Climate Change and Biodiversity. The coalition, led by the Environmental Justice Foundation, have written to the Prime Minister with the following asks: […]
03 Jul 2024
The Labour Party manifesto doesn’t say much about water, but it does include Putting water companies into ‘special measures’. Although there is no detail on what these measures might be, they could include Giving new powers to regulators to block water bosses’ bonuses for pollution Introducing criminal charges for persistent law-breaking and automatic fines for […]
10 Apr 2024
Interesting think piece from The Mint Magazine, covering water industry performance since privatisation, levels of debt and investment, and options for reforming the sector under a new government. The case for renationalisation Another article from Labour Peer Prem Sikka and published in Left Foot Forward argues the case for renationalisation Let Thames Water go bust: […]
01 Nov 2023
Writing The Mint magazine, Justin Taberham examines the prospects for the UK water sector. Near daily media interest and criticism of water companies’ pollution performance has lately been often stimulated by public reporting or legal action against them. In addition, debt loadings for some companies are at unsustainably high levels and investors have had to […]
08 Mar 2023
Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said Labour will set out at its party conference in September “a position that would clean up the water industry in this country, deliver value for money for consumers and bill payers, and finally work in the national interest”. Shadow defence and education minster Stephen Morgan shared: “Labour’s plan to […]
01 Oct 2019
As party conference season ends, Conservative plans for achieving their net-zero pledge to end carbon emissions by 2050 have been roundly criticised. They include a promise of a plant to deliver zero-carbon energy from nuclear fusion by 2040 – even though most experts believe achieving the dream is still 30 years away, as well as […]
