31 January 2025
A couple of months ago, CIWEM members and other WEM sector colleagues came together for A Fresh Water Future conference
This conference was a follow-up to the independent review of the same name that we facilitated, focusing on water sector performance and governance in the UK. CIWEM published the results of that review in January 2024, delivering a public manifesto for the next UK government to recover the health and resilience of our rivers, streams, lakes and coastal waters through an ambitious yet achievable package of measures.
Nearly a year later, with a new Labour government in power that has pledged to clean up Britain’s rivers, CIWEM’s policy team brought together many of the experts consulted along the way, plus policymakers, regulators, water industry and local authority leaders and even a government minister, for a packed day of discussion on possible ways forward for the water sector.
The conference began with some scene-setting. Last October, the government announced an independent commission on the water sector regulatory system. Ivy Manning, team leader of the Defra secretariat to the commission, laid out the vision of its chair, the senior civil servant Sir Jon Cunliffe, and explained the scope and timeline of the review.
It was encouraging to hear Manning’s enthusiastic call for conference attendees and the wider water sector to share their views as part of the evidence gathering phase of the Cunliffe review. At the end of her presentation, she took the time to introduce some of her Defra colleagues in the hall – one hopes that the subsequent busy networking session saw the starts of many constructive conversations as a result.
As the day progressed, many other speakers acknowledged the significance of the Cunliffe review, the first of its kind since the privatisation of the water sector in 1989. A sense of fragile optimism pervaded, albeit one tinged with anxiety at the scale of the task facing Sir Jon and his team as they seek solutions to the many interlinked challenges facing the water environment in the UK.
Also on speakers’ minds were the hotly anticipated ‘final determinations’ of the 2024 Price Review (PR24; which have since been published by Ofwat); the government’s Spending Review (due in late spring); and the start, in April, of AMP8, the next five-year regulatory framework for water companies in England and Wales. With all four of these events taking place within the course of just a few months, there was a sense among conference speakers of this period as a make-or-break moment for the UK’s freshwater environment, especially considering the fact that we’re just five years away from 2030, the water sector’s deadline for achieving a net zero water supply.
Seeking solutions
Many speakers took up the gauntlet that CIWEM had thrown down with the conference theme, ‘From challenges and solutions’. There are too many solutions to mention here (we’ll be publishing a post-even report on the CIWEM website in due course) but here are a few that stick in the mind.
Natalie Prosser, CEO of the Office for Environmental Protection, described the need for better implementation of the Water Framework Directive and modernisation of the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to make them fit for purpose. Martin Lines, CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, called for a reduction of large livestock farming in order to cut down on agricultural pollution of our waterways. While Lila Thompson, CEO of British Water, urged the sector to come up with a “common vision and purpose” if it wants to leave behind the “scattergun approach” to the challenges it faces.
The scope of the conversation became more technical as the day continued. Afternoon sessions centred on how to deliver catchment-based solutions for water and nature management more effectively, given the urgency of the nature and biodiversity crises. We heard insights on nature markets as a tool for financing, how to integrate between different government strategies, funding streams and legislative frameworks, and the need for a society-wide conversation about how our individual choices have real world impacts, to name just a few.
It could have just been me, as someone relatively new to WEM, but I don’t think I was the only one who left the conference that day with a slightly glazed expression on my face: dazzled by detail, intimidated by the scale of the challenge, yet bolstered by the optimism in the room and the obvious appetite for getting moving on some of the solutions discussed. It feels like a very exciting time to be working in this sector.
In his summing up, Alastair Chisholm, CIWEM’s policy director, announced that we’re making A Fresh Water Future an annual affair. So, if you missed the 2024 event, never fear, you can be part of the conversation in 2025. Watch this space for details, which we’ll publish nearer the time.
Author: Jo Caird is editor of The Environment