The £1.15 billion allocation for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) budget announced in the Spending Review could support the construction of an additional 140 biomethane plants –a technology with the potential to meet up to 30% of UK’s domestic gas or electricity demand.

A majority of the 18 water companies who responded  to Ofwat’s recent consultation for a financial monitoring framework have rejected a proposal for companies to perform stress testing on their forward looking business plans and to publish the results to demonstrate that they were financially resilient over the longer term.

Ofwat has flagged up a new research study as further European context to its findings on water affordability – yesterday the water industry regulator published its report on Affordability and debt 2014-15 which calls for the water companies to do more to help customers struggling to pay.

New regulations to create increased competition between England and Wales and Scotland via cross border applications allowing for an application to one regulator (Ofwat or WICS) to be treated as if it had been made to the other will come into force in April 2016. 

The Resilience Task and Finish Group set up by Ofwat to consider what resilience means for the wider water sector has put forward 10 recommendations in its final report, saying “the challenges are significant and it will take many years for the sector to build resilience.”