The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is calling for a critical plan designed to protect and improve Northern Ireland’s waters needs to be strengthened and implemented without further delay, in a new report released today.

David Black, current Chief Executive of Ofwat has taken up his new role as CEO for the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) – the role is in addition to his responsibilities as CEO of the water sector regulator.

Retail water market operator MOSL is warning that funding and Price Control Deliverables (PCDs) for smart metering set out in Ofwat’s draft determinations create a significant risk that companies will not be able to deliver demand reductions during PR24 to stay on track for Defra’s 9% reduction target by 2038.

Anglian Water’s Regulation Director, Darren Rice, outlines the changes Ofwat needs to make to ensure the water company’s Final Determination is investable and deliverable, following discussions with the regulator on Anglian’s proposed business plan for 2025-2030, saying: "As it stands the allowed return proposed in the Draft Determination will not enable us or the wider sector to attract the necessary debt and equity capital to fund AMP8 investment programmes."

Water UK is warning that unless Ofwat changes its approach, equity investors will not provide all the capital the sector needs at AMP8, especially when more attractive investment opportunities are available elsewhere.

Thames Water has warned Ofwat that on the basis of its draft determination for its AMP8 Business Plan, both Thames’ own and independent analysis shows that the plan would be “neither financeable nor investible and therefore not deliverable.

Ofwat has today confirmed the implementation of commitments from Thames Water, effective immediately, to remedy its licence breach in losing its investment grade credit ratings - including a commitment to further develop a revised AMP8 Business Plan for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2030 by 28 August 2024.

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland has flagged up the “deteriorating condition and age” of many of Scottish Water’s assets and concerns that the current scale and pace of investment in the maintenance and replacement of water assets is "simply not sufficient."

Lynn Parker, Senior Director, Casework, Enforcement and Customers at Ofwat, writes about a suite of new reports that are designed to help water companies learn from good practice and drive up standards of customer service.