The Water Act 2014 comes into force 14 July 2014
14 July 2014
Water - England & Wales
The Water Act 2014 provides powers to integrate abstraction, impounding, fish pass approval and flood defence consents into environmental permitting. Ofwat is required to take long-term resilience into account, while sustainable urban drainage systems may be a function of sewerage undertakers. Market reforms under the Act will permit business, public sector and charity organisations to switch sewerage and water suppliers. The sale of water resources between undertakers and by owners of small scale water storage is enabled. This Act also introduces the "Flood Re" insurance scheme, to subsidise insurance for homeowners in high flood risk areas. Though primarily applying to England and Wales, the cross-border water and sewerage retail market includes Scotland as do fish passage permitting requirements on the border River Esk and lower River Tweed. The flood insurance provisions cover the entire UK.