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.

Water UK, the body that represents all UK water and wastewater service suppliers at national and European level, has welcomed what it sees as a significant step by Defra towards solving what it describes as “the age-old problem of agricultural diffuse water pollution” at source where it is most cost-effective. 

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.

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.