The trade body representing independent water networks has called on the Government to scrap inefficient and outdated regulations to boost growth and speed up the delivery of new homes.
Under current regulations, independent water networks must apply for a New Appointment and Variation (NAV) licence to supply new housing developments with water on a site-by-site basis to four separate regulators or quangos – Ofwat, the Environment Agency or Natural Resources Wales, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the Consumer Council for Water.
Research from the Independent Networks Association has found that this duplicated approach to licencing meant regulators spent a cumulative 70,000 days reviewing applications in the last two years alone.
Nicola Pitts, the Executive Director of the INA has called on the Chancellor to introduce a national licensing scheme, that would see independent water network operators assessed upfront.
Nicola said: “The current approach to NAV licensing is inefficient, overly bureaucratic and hinders growth. Introducing a national NAV licence would allow independent water networks to focus on supporting the delivery of much needed new homes. The current set up means that one of our members had to wait an average of 212 working days for each licence to be issued in 2023, time that could be spent on supporting the delivery of new housing.
“Streamlining this process would lead to better regulation, and a better natural environment as regulators would have more time and resource to focus on environmentally sensitive sites and to investigate poor performers.”
The calls from the INA follow the release of Government proposals that seek to reduce the regulatory burden and bureaucracy for businesses, with the Government committing to cut administrative costs for business by 25% by the end of the Parliament.
