What’s next in the UK water sector

Celebrate excellence in the UK water sector by nominating outstanding individuals and organisations for the 2026 Future Water Awards, recognising emerging talent, people, and above-and-beyond contributions.

The WWT Drinking Water Quality Conference is back for its 11th edition, bringing together water quality leaders on 30 June – 1 July in Birmingham, to explore the latest developments in the drinking water sector, amid potential regulatory shifts.

Infrastructure sectors often rely on complex jargon that excludes the public. With the UK’s average reading age at nine, clear, simple, and visual communication is essential to build understanding and trust.

A wastewater treatment process, Helea, developed by Anglian Water, will be used by Haskoning for projects in São Paulo.

Adam Cave, Founder and Managing Director, Murray McIntosh shares what conversations across the supply chain are telling them — including which companies navigated Year 1 well and which struggled, what it means for hiring, and what the sector needs to do differently before it is too late. They're calling Year 1 what it really was: Year 0.

For much of the past decade, the water sector has been discussed in stark, national terms — collapsing trust, environmental failure and a licence to operate under sustained pressure. Cavenish’s latest polling shows just how entrenched those views have become. It also reveals something more important: the future narrative of water has not yet been written.