News

Bakers’ Hall, London, Wednesday 19 March

Hosted by the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators

Britain’s water sector is poised for a new “Bazalgette moment”, with a potential £104 billion to invest over the next five years and the chance to renew and transform much of the country’s water infrastructure, just as the great Victorian engineer Joseph Bazalgette transformed London’s sewers.

But the sector also needs a new approach from regulators and government, greater involvement from customers and communities and a genuine emphasis on sustainable use of water in the face of climate change, the annual City Water Debate was told. Water is fundamental to life.

What one speaker called the “wall of noise” around sewage overflows has distorted debate and obscured the other challenges facing the sector – including population growth, over-abstraction of chalk aquifers and the need to reverse the growth in household water usage – and the role of other sources of pollution, especially from farming and highways. But thanks to new investment the UK could in theory become the first country to design out sewage overflows completely.

Despite success in managing drinking water quality, there was justifiable criticism of years of “dishonesty” of regulators and government, who had often focused on keeping water bills down, when evidence suggested that today’s public was willing to pay more in order to protect the environment, and to allow water to be used recreationally without risk. Transferring ownership to overseas institutions was questionable and sector regulators needed to be better resourced. The Cunliffe review of the water sector’s regulation and the new Land Use Framework were welcomed as opportunities to adopt a more holistic approach to managing these complex systems, but there were differences between those who thought there was a chance to streamline and simplify regulation and those worried about weakening oversight, or about confusion and delay caused by merging regulators.

The debate heard too that the government’s target for new homes would not be met without more efficient use of water, reduced consumption per head and greater certainty around standards for water use in homes. There was a proposal for a Water Resilience Implementation Board to bring about a more consistent and coherent approach to development. And the government was urged to make better use of modern communication techniques to ensure the issues in the sector were properly understood.

Some questions remained at the end of the evening. Are the human skills and resources needed to spend £104 billion wisely and well available in the UK, and can the supply chain for equipment and appliances meet demand? Who might act as a “trusted voice” for the water sector after years of brickbats and poor publicity? And – the question no-one seemed able to answer – how can sufficient water capacity be found to meet both the government’s target of 1.5 million new homes and the immense demand for water from the new data centres required by AI? There cannot be wholesale reliance on technological ‘innovation’ without a proper understanding of how this can be fostered.

The principal speakers in the debate were Baroness Barbara Young of Old Scone, a former chief executive of the Environment Agency and current chair of the Labour Climate and Environment Forum, Rebecca Pow, minister for water in the last government, Ed Lockhart, chief executive of Future Homes Hub, and Susan Davy, chief executive of Pennon Water and president of the Institute of Water.

The Worshipful Company of Water Conservators is grateful to the following for their generous sponsorship of the evening: Agilia, Arup, BSI, Castle Water, Hazen, Precolor and RSK