Ofwat has published the Terms of Reference for the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) – the organisation which brings together the 3 water regulators to improve regulation and remove barriers to help the water sector respond to long term water resources challenges.

RAPID has now established a full board which includes Chair Rachel Fletcher, CEO of Ofwat, Harvey Bradshaw Executive Director of Environment and Business at the Environment Agency. Environment Agency and Marcus Rink, Chief Inspector at the Drinking Water Inspectorate. Paul Hickey has also this month joined RAPID as Managing Director on secondment from the Environment Agency. 

In Ofwat's PR19 final determinations, £469 million of funding was confirmed for 17 schemes which will form the initial RAPID portfolio.

The Terms of Reference set out:

• RAPID’s vision, mission, goals, objectives and scope.
• Responsibilities surrounding information provision through stage gates
• Specific deliverables, stakeholder strategy, finance, resources and planning.

RAPID’s goals and objectives include:

• Facilitating timely and co-ordinated development of strategic water resources infrastructure schemes so that they are construction-ready early in the 2025-30 period.
• More collaboration – influencing cultures to improve the regulators’ and sector’s collaboration on water resources planning. By 2025, ensuring that enduring arrangements are agreed for strategic water resources infrastructure.
• Best value not least cost - improving the evaluation of the full potential and impacts of schemes so that the best value portfolio of solutions is developed.
• Stakeholder by-in - ensuring that stakeholders better understand the costs and benefits of the available options and demonstrating that the scheme assessment and selection process is transparent, fair and equitable.
• Commercially relevant - supporting the development of commercial frameworks for construction, operation and maintenance of schemes. Aligning with and supporting the aims of DPC (Direct Procurement for Customers).
• Timely progress – dynamically monitoring progress of the portfolio of strategic schemes. To provide a seamless regulatory interface for the strategic schemes
• Efficient decision making - providing coordination to ensure the timely and efficient resolution of regulatory issues affecting strategic infrastructure development.
• Joint working - facilitating better joint working across the sector regulators, and between the regulators and respective governments.

The RAPID Programme is expected to have approximately 16 full time employees , made up of a combination of Ofwat permanent staff, secondees, interims and contractors. The programme, which is anticipated will exist as a programme for at least 4 years, will be resourced in 2019/20 via an approved £2.93 million business plan.

The Terms of Reference also specify what RAPID will and will not do. The programme will take an active interest in the development of the portfolio of schemes, facilitate the progress of schemes, promote solutions to regulatory barriers and probe reasons for delay. RAPID’s involvement in regional planning will see it working alongside regional planning stakeholder groups to provide regulatory oversight of regional water resource management plans.

However, RAPID will not propose new schemes, project-manage or develop individual schemes or provide guarantees that schemes will progress to completion. It will also not provide "quick fix, tactical and piecemeal regulatory change that does not consider the wider implications."

Click here to read RAPID’s Terms of Reference in full.