Today’s British Water “Better Together” Webinar was hosted by Lila Thompson, CEO of British Water. The webinar consisted of 3 short presentations and a general discussion.
The first speaker was Emma Clancy, Chief Executive of CCWater, who act as a voice for water customers. CCWater have secured over £29 million in financial redress for customers since 2005 and have handled over 400,000 complaints and enquiries. Their purpose is to improve regulation for the benefits of consumers and help water companies get the basics right. They do this by sharing best practice and having honest conservations about key challenges such as affordability that the sector faces. CCWater are exploring consumer choices for water efficiency and will review any shift in social tariffs post the pandemic.
The next speaker was Tim Thomas, Global Consultant, Sustainable Construction, MBCC who spoke about the need for sustainable construction. MBCC provide key support to the construction industry through innovation, sustainability and digitalisation. Concrete has a high carbon footprint and is the second most used material in the world after water. Cement has an incredibly high carbon content and they are researching cement free concrete for the future. Key issues for the water sector are infrastructure age and therefore shutdowns due to infrastructure maintenance, plus the use of materials that avoid contamination in the water system.
Finally, Sophie Broadfield, Deputy Director, Water Services, DEFRA spoke about policy priorities for England’s water sector, and ensuring regulation supports infrastructure modernisation and consumer quality. First, she highlighted the need to reduce demand and the need to introduce a statutory water demand target, including a 50% reduction in leakage and reducing per capita consumption to 110 l/h/d by 2050. She also spoke about the priority for better drainage and wastewater planning with initial voluntary plans for 2024. Sophie also mentioned key issues including affordability, improving water quality and ensuring existing EU water standards are incorporated into UK law.
DEFRA’s 3 environmental priorities are the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP), reducing storm overflows and a national action plan for chalk streams. WINEP sets out the actions that companies will need to complete to meet their environmental obligations. Drivers for investment range from measures for protected areas, improvements to meet River Basin Management objectives and other local environmental priorities.
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