Sustainable Solutions for Water and Nature (SSWAN)

The purpose behind SSWAN

SSWAN is a coalition of organisations who share the same goal: to find sustainable solutions for water and nature. The partnership comprises CIWEM, Green Alliance, RSPB, Sustainability First, The Rivers Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Wessex Water, and is endorsed by Water UK.

SSWAN seeks to restore and protect nature and to find sustainable solutions to ensure our waterbodies continue to sustain the health and wellbeing of people, as well as the natural habitats we all value and enjoy.

SSWAN advocates a catchment-based, holistic approach to managing our water courses, putting the emphasis on nature-based and low-carbon solutions to benefit water, nature, and society as a whole.

It sets out a vision for a new regulatory approach that:

• focuses on the management of water catchments
• drives environmental improvement at a national level
• takes account of local preferences, circumstances, and objectives
• enables all organisations affecting and managing catchments to innovate and accelerate environmental improvement in a cost-effective way.

The foundation of this new, more joined-up regulatory model is stronger accountability, with national targets tailored to local circumstances.

A new approach is needed

The current system of water and environmental regulation no longer delivers the outcomes that society expects and needs.

The water network and the environment are at breaking point and change is needed. We must seize the opportunity to align economic and environmental regulation across sectors and make the biggest structural reform of our water system in a generation.

Though the original water regulatory model delivered productivity gains of around 70% and improvements to services, it did not give due consideration to the environment and ultimately led to underinvestment in infrastructure which is now unable to keep up with the demands placed on it, including climate change and population growth.

There are visible signs of decline: leaks, sewage pollution, and water bodies in poor health. The water network and the environment are at breaking point and change is needed.

A flexible approach to deliver results

Today’s regulatory model was not intended to be overly prescriptive. Ofwat strives to set incentives for companies that will drive the right behaviours and efficient delivery of the services customers care about while at the same time protecting the environment.

However, in the 34 years since privatisation, the original vision of incentive regulation has to some extent been lost. Companies spend much of their time thinking about regulation rather than operational performance. And regulation focuses on what companies do rather than what they achieve. It is ill-suited to addressing the environmental challenges facing the UK’s waterways and coastal areas.

The new model will reverse this trend. Rather than focusing on inputs and outputs, it will hold regulated entities to account for the outcomes – with an appropriately focused outcome target such as a percentage reduction in nutrients in a particular water body to deliver good status.

This will enable those entities to operate in a fundamentally different way and has the potential to unlock two important types of action which will in turn drive improved environmental and operating performance:

1. Each entity will be able to pursue more innovative solutions if those are better at delivering the outcomes it is required to achieve.
2. In many cases the best way for one organisation to meet its target outcomes may be through coordinated action with others. For example, it may be considerably cheaper and more carbon efficient for a group of farmers to reduce nutrient loading in a river than for a water company to do so.

The basic principle is that the regulatory model should unlock rather than hinder opportunities. The potential benefits are substantial.