Water Minister Emma Hardy highlighted the significant challenges and opportunities for the UK water sector in the keynote speech at the British Water Annual Conference in Coventry yesterday.

Ofwat has published new guidance on what factors it will take into account in determining whether an infrastructure project should be specified for delivery under the Water Industry (Specified Infrastructure Projects) (English Undertakers) Regulations 2013.

The Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) has published its forward programme setting out its delivery priorities for 2024-25.

Ofwat is warning that the delivery of multi-sector reservoir (MSR) systems cannot be subsidised by water customers, saying that “as a principle, public water supply customers should not subsidise other reservoir users and we expect costs to be fairly shared between users.”