The Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) has published its forward programme setting out its delivery priorities for 2024-25.

The RAPID partnership of the three water regulators in England consists of Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI)

RAPID says it will be:

• leading and guiding the industry to plan and deliver the right and timely outcomes for water resources
• continuing with an ambitious programme, which will be matched by a number of important milestones in the water resource management planning agenda.

The regulators’ five themes for 2024-25 are:

• developing a positive culture and driving performance;
• providing effective oversight of the strategic solutions;
• engaging people and organisations;
• achieving effective long-term water resources resilience through improved infrastructure planning; and
• exploring and addressing regulatory and commercial opportunities, gaps and barriers.

This year RAPID has expanded the ‘achieving effective long-term water resources resilience’ theme to include improved infrastructure planning - strategic infrastructure planning for the water sector as a whole. This includes water resource management plans (WRMPs), regional plans, and Long Term Delivery Strategies (LTDS), and how these support the companies’ business plans.

During 2024-25 RAPID will assess gate three submissions for some solutions, including Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling. The partner regulators will assess the progress made in the timely development of each solution and provide advice and recommendations to enable Ofwat to make decisions on continued ring-fenced funding for solution progression

In terms of regulatory and commercial frameworks, RAPID will seek to address opportunities, gaps and barriers in:

• economic regulation;
• environmental regulation;
• drinking water quality regulation; and
• commercial frameworks (contractual/procurement arrangements).

The document says RAPID will continue “with considerable focus” during 2024-25 on commercial frameworks and procurement. The RAPID team will work collaboratively with the regulators and the sector to shape the commercial framework for strategic resource solutions and to consider where there are tensions and policy trade-offs between local impact and national need.

At some point RAPID will also publish a document summarising the responses to its 2023 consultation on commercial structures, and a new consultation on draft guidance on negotiating bulk supply agreements for RAPID solutions.

During Q3 of 2024-25 RAPID intends to develop a process for potential new solutions that may join the programme as a result of the 2024 price review and agree final policy positions for commercial arrangements.

During the same period RAPID will also work with Ofwat to publish final updated Ofwat statutory guidance on the Specified Infrastructure Provider Model (SIPR) - SIPR was used as the delivery model for the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT). Under SIPR the third-party service provider, is granted its own licence by Ofwat who then regulate them directly.

SIPR was one of two potential delivery options for large major infrastructure projects in the sector included in RAPID’S guide for investors published in October 2022, the other being Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC).  However, the guidance said the SIPR model had a high threshold and could not at that time be widely used.

Under DPC, the activities of Competitively Appointed Providers (CAP) are regulated indirectly via the contractual relationship between the CAP and the water company.

The RAPID forward programme, which covers the period 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, fits within Ofwat’s own 2024-25 forward programme and contains more detail about how it will deliver the RAPID milestones in that programme.