Member news

The government's 1.5 million homes target has a water problem. Research by Public First for CIWEM found that water scarcity could leave 61,600 homes unbuilt across the East and Southeast alone – a £25 billion shortfall. In Cambridgeshire, the constraint is already live: 9,000 homes delayed and counting.

The FOG Network 2026 brought the sector together to explore how fats, oils, and grease can be kept out of sewers, traced through the system, and recovered as a useful resource.

When a critical Scottish Water pumping station failed mid-maintenance, Xylem's Avensor real-time monitoring enabled controlled flow management, avoiding over-pumping and pollution risk.

With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”

The West is in a cyber 'phoney war' Charles Radclyffe at EA Global wrote in Forbes. Attacks are coming, utilities are dangerously exposed, and mandatory baseline cyber standards for every company and citizen are now essential.

January’s extreme weather initiated serious flood risk in the Somerset Levels. However, the Environment Agency (EA) and partners were able to manage potential impacts by implementing flood resilience strategies that included the rapid deployment of many additional transportable pumps.