The Government says it recognises that securing the long-term future of England’s water sector relies on continued private sector investment – despite the announcement by Andy Burnham yesterday of plans to remove the current cap on Government ownership of shares in water companies.

As the government establishes its 10-year strategy for infrastructure investment, a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has set out the key lessons when considering the use of private finance for public infrastructure projects.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has today published its Seventh Carbon Budget which calls for the UK to reduce emissions by 87% and emit just 13% compared to 1990 levels by 2040.

The economist Dan Corry has been appointed to carry out an internal review into the regulation and regulators at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

A new independent expert advisory group has been launched today to assist Government with the delivery of UK climate and nature goals.

The National Infrastructure Commission is warning that the Government is off track to meet targets and ambitions on infrastructure in a range of areas.

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.”

A new report from the National Audit Office on the Private Finance Initiative says that future annual charges for operational PFI contracts which continue until the 2040s amount to £199 billion, even if no new  deals are entered into,

The Financial Times has levelled further swingeing criticism at the UK water sector and Ofwat in a new article which says that privatisation has failed and investment has only been achieved “at a heavy cost to consumers.”

Water UK, the body which represents all the water companies in the UK at both national and international level, has said the Labour Party manifesto "does not do justice to the water industry's record following privatisation."