Water companies in England and Wales still have much work ahead of them – despite improving performance and pumping over £4.3 billion into maintaining existing assets and investing in new facilities in 2006-2007, according to Ofwat.

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.

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.”

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

Ofwat has today published the supporting document it has been asked to prepare by Defra as leader of the water sector group to evaluate the implications of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) for the water industry in England and Wales.

The Head of Comparative Efficiency at Ofwat has written to the Regulatory Directors of the water companies to set out in greater detail Ofwat’s policy for the 2009 periodic review and the information requirements for the PR09 business plans the companies will have to submit for the next investment cycle.

The second phase review of UK environmental standards and conditions for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has now closed and summary documents published. The review has been undertaken by the WFD United Kingdom Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG) - a working group of experts drawn from the UK environment and conservation agencies – set up to provide coordinated advice to Government on technical aspects of the Directive.