CECA recently held a roundtable with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to discuss reform of the water sector. In this short blog, Ben Goodwin, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at CECA, summarises the key points from the discussion that took place.
The roundtable provided a platform for members from the Association to set out their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges for reforming the sector, alongside their views on the progress being made with AMP8 delivery.
Following the recommendations made in the Cunliffe Review, Defra published a White Paper at the beginning of 2026, which puts forward the Government’s vision for transforming the water sector. It focuses on several high-level themes, including:
- Reforming Strategic Policy Statements and improving regional water planning
- Establishing a new integrated water regulator
- Enhancing the attractiveness of the sector for investment
- The creation of a new independent water ombudsman to help put customers first
- Putting in place a clear plan for clean and secure water
- Committing to publishing a Transition Plan during 2026 to guide the water sector through the reform process.
With big changes taking place at the top of the UK’s Government and the potential for this to disrupt the progress that has been made so far on water sector reform, CECA’s roundtable provided a timely opportunity to reflect on where we’ve reached in the process, and where we need to go next.
In opening the roundtable, Martin Woolhead, Deputy Director, Water Services, Defra, provided some useful context in terms of the journey that the water sector has been on so far.
Defra established the Water Delivery Taskforce in April 2025 to ensure that water companies deliver on their planned investments to provide water and wastewater capacity.
Whilst this has been welcomed by the sector, there is still a concern that moving from planning to the delivery of projects and programmes in AMP8 has been too slow. As a consequence, there are also fears that the supply chain could become overwhelmed towards the end of the current AMP period. This unevenness in delivery is something that we have consistently seen happen in previous AMP periods.
However, moving forward, Defra are confident that the introduction of its Transition Plan and the new single regulator (to be legislated for later this year) will ensure that this cycle is addressed during PR29 and in future AMP periods.
CECA members attending the roundtable reflected on the same ‘boom and bust’ scenarios that have become synonymous with delivery in the water sector, and the need to find solutions for the ‘smoothing’ of workload to occur in future AMPs.
In short, to deliver optimal outcomes, projects and programmes need to be designed and ready to go at the beginning of an AMP period.
Members also highlighted how the standardisation of project planning and delivery could aid in smoothing out workloads, as could the sharing of best practice and innovation between water companies. They are after all not in direct competition with one another in the conventional sense.
Inevitably and quite rightly, there was discussion on why pipeline certainty is so critical for enabling contractors to plan business growth and understand skills requirements, whilst creating efficiencies in the planning system, particularly around the Environmental Impact Assessment regime, was also a point of focus.
CECA’s next online policy discussion for members will be with the Competition and Markets Authority, when members will have the chance to learn more about the CMA’s civil engineering market study and its likely implications for the infrastructure sector. This is taking place on 25 August and members can reserve their places here.
CECA would like to thank Martin and his team at Defra for facilitating this roundtable, which provided an ideal opportunity for CECA members to provide high-level input on the issues that matter most to their businesses.
If you are a CECA member and would like to know more about our work in the water sector, please get in touch via enquiries@ceca.co.uk.