Environment

Coffey summons ‘extremely disappointing’ water bosses

Water companies owe billpayers £236 million for underperformance

Final hosepipe ban ends

South West Water has ended the final hosepipe ban, which had been in place for residents of north Devon and Cornwall since last year. Reservoir levels are now up to 28% higher than this time last year.

Cost of tackling storm overflow spills rises to £60bn

Duty to upgrade sewage treatments should be expanded

MP: ‘South West Water is like Russell Brand, not to be trusted’

Rebuilding trust in water

Lords block ‘unconservative’ bid to relax water pollution rules

The House of Lords has blocked the government’s attempts to relax rules around the pollution of waterways. In a fiery debate on the proposed amendment to the Energy Bill, former Climate Change Committee chair Lord Deben labelled the move as “entirely unconservative” and added that it was “one of the worst pieces of legislation” he has ever seen. The proposed amendment on scrapping nutrient neutrality measures was introduced by Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove last month. He claimed it would free up developers to build thousands of homes.

Water companies urged to ditch ‘impenetrable’ reports

Ofwat and government may have broken law over sewage spills

Weekend press: SSE rules out new onshore wind farms in England and Wales

In this weekend’s papers, the boss of SSE rules out building new onshore wind farms in England and Wales, saying the company is focusing on offshore wind despite the relaxation of planning rules and the absence of the latter from last week’s CfD auctions. There is also continued reaction to the “disastrous” auctions and a survey finds more than half of voters will be influenced by the government’s handling of sewage spills at the next election.

Ofwat seeks net zero innovations

Armitt: Water sector has a lot of catching up to do

Tideway boss pockets £1.7m bonus

Helm: Breaking up Thames would be a good start

Economist Dieter Helm has proposed dividing beleaguered Thames into two public limited companies with simplified ownership to improve management and prevent financial engineering. The sector's long-term critic also took Ofwat to task for not taking steps to strip poorly-performing companies of their licences and proposed reverting to the single-company structures of the original privatised companies.