Water plays a fundamental role in our natural world and a healthy, functioning environment is crucial for the water sector to deliver the services and outcomes people, society and the environment need.
That’s why at Ofwat, our work is about the shared responsibility to protect people and the natural world; from preserving precious water supplies, to helping customers and communities, to protecting and enhancing wildlife.
We support the government’s ambition of leaving the environment in a better condition for future generations.
While the Environment Agency is the main body responsible for regulating water quality and ecological protection, Ofwat plays a critical role in driving and enabling the water sector to protect and improve the environment. As part of our price review process, we ringfence investment for environmental initiatives and ensure water companies deliver environmental improvements efficiently, using our regulatory tools to make sure they prioritise this.
We are listening to customers and their views on the environment. Through our customer insights research, we proactively seek the views of customers on the issues they care about.
We have also been listening to the broader public response to issues like storm overflows, and we hear how important it is that customers see improvements to the environment, with companies responding to the challenge of climate change and acting in the long-term interests of the environment.
