Water table

The Independent Water Commission has published its interim report, which sets out the scale of change needed to reform the water sector.

It is based on the Commission’s Call for Evidence, which ran from February till April and received more than 50,000 responses.

Sir Jon Cunliffe, Chair of the Commission, has set out five areas where he believes wide-ranging and fundamental change is needed to reset the water sector in England and Wales:

• strategic direction and planning

• legislative framework

• regulatory reform

• company structures, ownership, governance and management; and

• infrastructure and asset health.

In response to the report, Wavin’s Martin Lambley said: “Developers, planners and local authorities need a consistent regulatory framework they can build around. A decade-long delay in critical legislation – such as Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act – has left too many developments in limbo, compromising both resilience and innovation. The government has a golden opportunity to embed climate-ready design throughout urban infrastructure, from sustainable drainage systems to nature-based solutions.”

Read the report at b.link/GOV_IWCinterim

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