06 Feb 2025
The consumer body for water customers says urgent action is needed to protect cash-strapped households from soaring water bills. The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has warned many of the most financially vulnerable households will not be able to cope with a £123 (+26%) increase to the average household water and sewerage bill in England […]
06 Feb 2025
A new research article in Nature highlights “widespread tactics of disinformation, greenwashing and manufacturing doubt…” used by water companies. It argues that “the financial exploitation of water resources in England, alongside long-term degradation of infrastructure and ineffective regulation, raises globally important issues around water security, ethics and environmental stewardship. Much greater scrutiny of both industry […]
08 Jan 2025
Campaign group 38 Degrees is encouraging people to share their views on sewage by participating in a consultation that was covered in this newsletter before Christmas and relates to the Public Bill Committee, which has asked for written evidence on the Water (Special Measures) Bill by Thursday 16 January. Photo credit: Karen Laårk Boshoff […]
31 Dec 2024
The Drinking Water Inspectorate, part of Defra, has published the second 3-yearly report on the quality of drinking water supplies in England, covering 2020 to 2022. It summarises the quality of public supplies and the largest private supplies serving more than 5,000 consumers or 1,000 cubic metres (m3) a day. The Drinking Water Inspectorate regulates […]
19 Dec 2024
The Water (Special Measures) Bill was debated in the House of Commons on Monday evening at second reading stage. There is general cross-party support for the Bill, and MPs expressed anger over pollution, investment, dividends and lots more. There was also quite a lot of criticism for Ofwat. You can read the debate here and […]
19 Dec 2024
The government has confirmed that water customers around the country will benefit from significantly higher payments to compensate them for water company service failures. Photo credit: Ekaterina Belinskaya Following public consultation, new and increased compensation will be compulsory for water companies to pay to customers and businesses in the event of issues like water […]
03 Dec 2024
The Water Sector Multi-capitals Network has launched the Principles of multi-capitals approaches to decision making. Despite variations in approaches towards multi-capitals accounting, the principles laid out in this paper will support consistency and alignment, and support better decisions to be made using multi-capital information. Multi-capital approaches should be comprehensive, trustworthy and useful. This paper will help […]
30 Oct 2024
Following last week’s announcement of an Independent Commission into the water sector and its regulation, Defra has published the Terms of Reference. The government says the “sector should become one of growth and opportunity, which will restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health, deliver a resilient and efficient water supply in the face […]
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