Ofwat has written to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in response to its current consultation on planning for a sustainable future.

A report published today by the Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) confirms the overall quality of drinking water in Scotland has continued to improve. The regulator confirms that the “overall quality of the public supply in Scotland is now very high.”

In its newly published position paper into the change of ownership of Sutton and East Surrey Water, Ofwat has concluded that there are no significant regulatory issues arising from the sale of Deutsche Bank's stake in Aqueduct Capital UK Ltd (ACUK).

Aquavitae, one of the companies trying to break into the water supply market, has complained to the Office of Fair Trading about the price Anglian Water wants to charge for access to its supply network, claiming that Anglian's prices would squeeze its margins and make it impossible for Aquavitae to make a profit.

Jonathan Hodgkin, Director of Network Regulation at Ofwat, has written to all the water companies with proposals for water efficiency targets for each company for the remainder of AMP4.

Water companies in England and Wales reduced the amount of water lost to leakage by nearly 160 million litres of water (Ml/d) a day. This is equal to the daily needs of around one million domestic consumers.

The draft Climate Change Bill shows the Government is learning some lessons from the failure to meet its 2010 carbon dioxide reduction targets, the Environmental Audit Select Committee concludes in its Seventh Report - but also comments that that the Government's policy towards the UK's 2050 target is clearly incoherent.

Rumours still persist in the marketplace about a possible takeover bid for Pennon Group, owner of South West Water by the Spanish Group Aguas de Barcelona who own Bristol Water. Pennon share price closed 1.6% higher yesterday.