The Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development has published its Annual Review for April 2024 to March 2025 period which flags up RAPID's achievements and areas for improvement. Key concerns highlighted by stakeholders include capacity and delivery confidence, with supply chain readiness, funding models, and programme management identified as areas of uncertainty.

In his introduction to the Progress Review, Paul Hickey, Managing Director of RAPID said the period had been an important year for the partnership and that RAPID had made a substantial contribution to Ofwat’s 2024 Price Review (PR24) final determinations released in December 2024.

According to the Review, the programme has scaled up as cross-sector work on water resource option development bears fruit with RAPID now supporting 28 solutions, backed by an additional £2 billion in development funding at PR24 – over four times the funding allocated in the previous price review period.

The expanded RAPID pipeline includes nine new reservoirs, nine large-scale water transfers, seven water recycling schemes, as well as desalination and mine water treatment options.

The schemes will deliver a minimum of 1 billion extra litres of water per day, with the potential to reach up to 2.8 billion, meeting the water needs of over 20 million people.

Alongside securing future water supply, the RAPID pipeline is expected to provide an economic boost by unlocking an estimated £50 billion in total expenditure investment – unlocking jobs and capacity for new housing.

Over the year priority schemes reached greater maturity as they progressed through the RAPID gated process, with the first gate three Final Decision released in March 2025, for the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling solution – a significant milestone for the pipeline.

Set up in 2019, the RAPID partnership is currently made up of three water regulators – Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). Commenting on the publication of the Independent Water Commission’s final report in July 2025 which brought forward proposals for systemic regulatory reform in the water sector, Paul Hickey says:

“Whilst this is outside the period for this annual progress review (April 2024 to March 2025), it would be remiss not to acknowledge the impact this will have on RAPID and the water sector going forward.”

The review says that RAPID’s annual stakeholder survey conducted over July and August 2025 showed “overall positive sentiment” towards RAPID, particularly among industry stakeholders.

However, the survey also flagged up areas for improvement - key concerns included:

• pipeline delivery - stakeholders want faster, more visible progress on solutions and clarity on sequencing;
• regulatory and market alignment - challenges remain around ownership of regional planning, fair risk allocation, and coordination across regulators.
• capacity and delivery confidence - supply chain readiness, funding models, and programme management are areas of uncertainty;
• communication - requests for clearer timelines, improved website navigation, greater transparency on project status, and more regular updates; and
• engagement - calls for reinstated forums (e.g. Quarterly Liaison Meetings), more face-to-face events, national conferences, and structured feedback loops.

Looking further ahead, RAPID expects additional projects to join the pipeline in the coming years as it supports companies to explore further optioneering. 

Click here to download The RAPID Annual Progress Review 2024-25