November 2024 saw the publication of the 2024 5th edition of Halsbury’s Laws of England, Water & Waterways, vols 100 and 101, for which I was Consultant Editor, along with the expert Editor Siobhan McKeering. This made for a busy summer.
Apart from these mighty tomes landing on my doorstep, 2024 has already been quite a year for water, and 2025 seems set to be just such another.
The new Labour government won the general election, and before long had introduced a Water (Special Measures) Bill. This Bill started in the House of Lords, has already progressed to the Commons, and aims to increase criminal sanctions for causing pollution, to limit water company bonuses to executives at firms which are polluting, and to ensure all sewerage outlets are monitored.
The Bill also makes adjustments to the regulation of the water industry special administration regime, the most recent of several significant regulatory updates to that regime undertaken in 2024. The special administration regime provides for emergency arrangements to ensure the continued supply of water and essential services if any water or sewerage undertaker is unable to meet its obligations.
The government has also set up a new Water Commission chaired by former Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe to undertake what is billed as the most fundamental root and branch review of water regulation since water privatisation in 1989. The review is likely to be the basis of more comprehensive legislation to rebalance the management of the water industry.
On 3 November 2024 a public March for Clean Water brought thousands from around the country onto the streets of London to demand more effective implementation of existing laws to control pollution of rivers and coastal waters.
The Courts have been busy, and the Manchester Ship Canal (No 2) case was just one of the major judgements that has impacted the water sector, and in this case, the relationship between statutory nuisance and the discharge of treated water. The case considered whether the Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited could bring a private law claim in nuisance and/or trespass against United Utilities Water Limited in respect of unauthorised discharges of untreated foul water by UU into the canal.
The case of R (Pickering Fishery Association) v the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is awaiting consideration by the Court of Appeal.
The appeal concerns a judicial review of the Secretary of State’s approval of the Humber River Basin Management Plan under the Water Framework Directive Regulations. The Court of Appeal will consider whether programmes of measures to achieve the environmental objectives for the Upper Costa Beck in North Yorkshire were sufficient to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive Regulations.
The Thames Tideway supersewer has started to be connected and four of its 21 locations are now operational. This has taken eight years to build, involved 25,000 people in its construction, and has a combined capacity of 1.6 million cubic metres. It must be the biggest investment in upgrading London’s sewerage system since the Victorian engineering works of Joseph Bazalgette.
The impact of EDF’s Hinkley Point C on fish continues to be debated. The company proposes not to use an Accoustic Fish Deterrent on its massive cooling water intake, to deter fish from being taken into the cooling system, but instead to develop compensating saltmarsh from farmland elsewhere in the estuary.
All this and more will continue to occupy water lawyers throughout 2025.