We have seen a significant improvement in the water environment and in resilience to flood and drought in recent years. In 2018, 97.9% of bathing waters passed minimum quality standards with 92.4% of these achieving the highest standards of Good or Excellent status. The number of serious pollution incidents caused by the water industry reduced from over 500 per year in the early 1990s to 57 in 2016, and leakage levels are down by around a third since 1994. Water industry investment since privatisation has been around £140 billion, equivalent to around £5 billion annually. The government is investing £2.6 billion from 2015 to 2021 in flood and coastal defence projects, and already 147,000 homes are better protected.
However, there is more to do to achieve the commitments of clean and plentiful water and reducing the risks of harm from environmental hazards, as set out in 'A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan). There are challenges to restore many of our waters to as close to natural state as possible, and to improve water and flood resilience. The combination of climate change and population growth will make these challenges even more difficult.
Existing regulatory processes can help us rise to the challenge. The Environment Agency have consulted on the approach to the next round of river basin management plans to determine how we can meet our target for the water environment. Water companies are planning to invest £50 billion over the next five years, which will improve water quality and increase flood and drought resilience.
We have identified opportunities to modernise our regulation to enable better long-term planning and give regulators the powers that they need to improve our water environment and water services. This consultation sets out our proposals for:
- Better long-term planning for water resources and drainage through:
- Modernising water regulation by:
If you would like to keep in contact with us to express interest in this, or any other Defra consultation, please give us your details through the link below
https://gov.smartwebportal.co.uk/defra/public/webform.asp?id=108&id2=1D06F7
The consultation has now closed. Thank you for your input. We will be assessing feedback and publishing a response on this page.
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