Ofwat’s regulatory approach to date appears to have placed insufficient emphasis on facilitating the investment necessary to ensure that the sewerage system in England is fit for the challenges of the 21st century, and able to cope with housing growth and the impact of climate change while restoring good ecological health to rivers. Investment must be accelerated so that damaging discharges from wastewater treatment assets, including storm overflows, cease and that any spills occur only in ge...

Ofwat’s regulatory approach to date appears to have placed insufficient emphasis on facilitating the investment necessary to ensure that the sewerage system in England is fit for the challenges of the 21st century, and able to cope with housing growth and the impact of climate change while restoring good ecological health to rivers. Investment must be accelerated so that damaging discharges from wastewater treatment assets, including storm overflows, cease and that any spills occur only in genuinely exceptional circumstances. (Paragraph 232) Water quality in rivers 125 Type: conclusion | Number: 43 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: Government supports the use of natural capital in decision making, as set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan. We accept that Ofwat should take natural capital into account in economic decision making. Natural capital was included in the 2017 Strategic Policy Statement and Ofwat continues to incorpo