Yorkshire Water has been fined £233,000 and ordered to pay £18,766.06 costs and £170 Victim Surcharge after it admitted to being responsible for a sewage leak that led to the deaths of hundreds of fish in Tong Beck, near Bradford.

In the third of our regular series of comment on key issues for the UK water sector by the Future Water association, Chief Executive Paul Horton and Richard Laikin, Director at RL Strategy Consulting, ask whether the drivers of value in the water sector have changed.

S&P Global Ratings has announced that it has downgraded four UK water utilities, after they accepted the final determination of Ofwat’s price review (PR19) in December. 

The Department for Food Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) is getting ready to set up district licensing schemes to deliver pond creation and restoration across England to protect the habitats of great crested newts.

Fitch Ratings has warned that Ofwat's recent draft price review determinations published are likely to have a negative impact on the credit quality of rated UK water companies.

A report in yesterday’s Sunday Times newspaper says that Southern Water has alerted law enforcement authorities which are “understood to include the SFO” as part of Ofwat’s ongoing investigations into the operation of some of the utility's wastewater treatment works.

NI Water has acknowledged that it “misinterpreted the extent of its powers “ when it imposed a hosepipe ban in June and July of this year during exceptionally hot weather conditions.

A new report from NERA Economic Consulting is warning that nationalising UK utilities would cost the British taxpayer around £182 billion. 

Ofwat’s consultation paper on its proposal to impose a penalty on Thames Water for significant failures in its leakage reduction performance published last week has revealed a catalogue of failures in the delivery vehicle the water company put in place to deliver its leakage activities.

Ofwat has approved an application by Severn Trent Water to vary its area of appointment which would enable the company to become the water supplier for Dee Valley Water customers located in England.