Water UK , the body which represents UK water and wastewater service suppliers at national and European level, has announced the publication of an independent assessment of the prospects for water competition in the United Kingdom.

Carried out by the Oxford-based Regulatory Policy Institute under its Director, Professor George Yarrow, the study has been sponsored by Water UK as an informed and objective contribution to the present lively policy debate on water competition.

The report addresses a range of issues including:

• the potential for competition to help individuals and society value water more as a commodity whose scarcity value should be better recognised

• the role that better information about the value of water might play in helping government take forward its agenda on climate change

• the management of water resources and its influence on the valuation of water

• the need for competition rules tailored to the circumstances of the water industry

• the application of these rules to the parts of the water supply chain that deal with water resources and treatment. Prospects for competition in the provision of water services is available in full and executive summary form from the www.rpieurope.org. Water competition is presently the subject of reviews both by Defra and Ofwat