A group of 200+ leading water and wastewater professionals attending British Water’s 2026 Spring Reception at the House of Lords, heard that the sector “needs some banking to tell the stories that many don’t get to hear”. Lord Wei of Shoreditch, who hosted the annual gathering, told attendees that the sector should join forces to create “a story bank, a money bank, and a people bank”.
The story bank will help to promote the work that water and wastewater professionals are doing at a time when positive storytelling is not always heard outside of the sector. He spoke candidly to member companies, water company leaders and other key industry figures about needing to do more to highlight the brilliant innovation in water and wastewater as the sector undergoes a once-in-a-generation transformation.
Continuing the banking analogy, the peer also suggested sovereign financing, similar to that in Singapore, to support long-term water infrastructure investment, together with better knowledge sharing on people, skills and resources across the sector.
“We have great examples of people working hard to innovate and transform the way we manage, consume and save water, so let’s create a bank of positive stories that the whole sector can share. Through a common narrative, we can shift the perception of the sector as one that is not only critical to our national infrastructure and security, but also essential to the government’s long-term growth mission.”
Skills was a common theme at the event as guests discussed the struggle to attract new people into the sector. Stephen Slessor, Chair of British Water, put forward the idea of human capital being on the balance sheet, while Paul Cox at Energy & Utility Skills, suggested that the sector needs to create more ‘stickyness’ to tackle worker churn.
British Water has since announced a partnership with Energy & Utility Skills, championing and supporting the need for a skilled, resilient and forward-looking workforce, ensuring the supply chain’s voice is heard clearly.
Lila Thompson, CEO at British Water, comments: “This is a continuation of the work we’ve done with key stakeholders to raise awareness and discussion about the human capital in water. We are committed to supporting the need for a national skills strategy to support the replacement of people retiring out of the sector and fill the new roles that will be needed as the sector fast tracks infrastructure upgrades. We need to continue to work together to make the sector an attractive place to work, ensuring retention and recruitment, as well as improving the sector’s performance on inclusion.”
Now in its 19th year, British Water’s Spring Reception continues to raise the profile of the UK water sector and gives the supplier community a valuable opportunity to build the professional networks that will help address sector challenges.
Attendees also heard from guest keynote speaker, Becky Wood, Chief Executive, National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) who spoke about water’s central role in supporting the government’s long-term growth plans.
“Stability, confidence, collaboration and a commitment to deliver the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy sit at the heart of NISTA’s work. Strengthening investor confidence and linking long-term outcomes to near-term decisions are crucial to helping supply chains plan effectively and avoid capacity issues. The Dynamic Infrastructure Pipeline (recently updated with workforce demand data), a slimmed-down Government Major Projects Portfolio, and working with Public Financial Institutions on new financing and business models, are among the tools NISTA is using to transform how infrastructure is planned and delivered.”
Addressing water scarcity by delivering new water and wastewater infrastructure – not least reservoirs – was, she said, “crucial to the success of the government’s goals of 1.5 million new homes by 2030 and building new towns”.
She also stressed that “better management of the country’s legacy assets was equally as important to the strategy’s overall success. NISTA’s spatial planning approach, supported by its ALIGN tool, would ensure the infrastructure a community needs – not just water but transport, housing, energy and digital – is considered in the round, making subsequent trade-off decisions easier. Using AI to improve NISTA’s capacity to synthesise and analyse government and private sector data will also allow government to better identify pinch points and gaps, and better sequence projects to reflect resource constraints and workforce readiness”.
In closing, she said NISTA’s focus on addressing cross-cutting barriers and ensuring better alignment of policy, regulation and delivery are all about giving supply chains the confidence to plan ahead and invest. She also welcomed the chance events such as the reception offered to hear directly from companies at the sharp end of delivery.
