Behind an unassuming door at Hull’s famous aquarium, scientists are putting everyday flood defences to the test, with some surprising results. Tim Smedley visits the University of Hull’s Property Floo...

Summer has gone, temperatures have fallen and rain has returned to parts of Britain. So surely the drought is over? Not quite. England enters autumn with reservoirs far below where they should be, riv...

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Flood Re has helped hundreds of thousands of households secure affordable insurance against flooding. But with the scheme due to end in 2039 and climate risks rising, Tim Smedley meets Flood Re’s Mart...

We are increasingly encouraged to think about the carbon footprint of what we eat. But our food has a water footprint too, and the two don't always point us towards the same choices. Clara Wren looks ...

More than 200,000 people have backed a petition calling for a referendum on returning the water industry to public ownership. Parliament has now debated it, but nobody voted on whether the public shou...

After England and Wales endured a record-breaking dry summer, the Government’s new £75 million ‘Let’s Save Water’ campaign is asking households to cut their daily water use by 28 litres. Tim Smedley a...

Richard Tice argues there is no evidence that net zero will stop climate change and says it is “arrogant” to believe we can stop a changing climate. But humanity has confronted a global atmospheric cr...

Exclusive: As millions of people face hosepipe bans, many companies are not required to report, let alone cut, use of public supply

El Niño is strengthening into what forecasters say could be an exceptional event, the Atlantic remains unusually warm and Britain has just emerged from a remarkable summer of heat and drought. But wha...

Sixty years ago parts of the River Thames were officially declared biologically dead. Today seals, otters, seahorses and more than 100 species of fish call it home. Its recovery is not a fairy tale, n...

Britain’s gardens are increasingly being asked to cope with two apparently contradictory problems: periods of saturated ground and intense rainfall, followed by weeks of heat and drought. The climate-...

Over seven articles, we have explored how the Future Homes Standard is changing the way Britain builds, heats, powers and supplies water to its homes. But homes built today may still be standing a cen...

In July, Thames Water asked millions of customers to restrict their water use as drought tightened its grip. In the same month, the heavily indebted utility paid its finance chief a £1 million signing...

As drought conditions spread across much of the UK, rivers are shrinking, reservoirs are falling and millions of people are changing how they use water. Beyond the headlines and hosepipe bans lies a b...

Tomorrow's homes won't simply consume electricity. Increasingly they will generate it, store it and use it more intelligently, helping homeowners reduce costs while supporting a cleaner, more flexible...

Tomorrow's homes won't simply consume electricity. Increasingly they will generate it, store it and use it more intelligently, helping homeowners reduce costs while supporting a cleaner, more flexible...

How Sustainable Drainage Systems, rainwater harvesting and water-smart design are helping tomorrow’s communities live alongside water, rather than simply trying to get rid of it.

As more water companies introduce hosepipe bans following another spell of hot, dry weather, many people are asking the same question: if Britain is famous for its rain, why are we running short of wa...

Every flush, shower and washing machine starts a hidden journey beneath our streets. As Britain builds the homes of the future, engineers are rethinking how wastewater is collected, treated and return...

Every time you turn on the tap, clean, safe drinking water appears almost instantly. Yet before it reaches your kitchen, that water may have travelled for weeks, months or even years through rivers, r...

Heat pumps don't create heat, they move it. Understanding that simple idea unlocks one of the most important engineering innovations shaping Britain's future homes and explains why these systems can d...

From forests growing on skyscrapers to desert landscapes brought back to life, the world's most imaginative rainwater harvesting ideas prove that sometimes the strangest solutions are also the smartes...

Walk around almost any new housing development and you'll notice a familiar sight disappearing. The traditional gas boiler is increasingly being replaced by an air source heat pump. But why has this t...

A WaterMatters guide to the homes and communities of tomorrow. The Future Homes Standard represents the most significant change to the design of new homes in a generation. But the real story goes far...

Who Will Fix Britain's Water System? As Britain swings from floods to hosepipe bans, and Westminster wrestles with the future of Thames Water, one question has become impossible to ignore.

Sixty years ago parts of the River Thames were officially declared biologically dead. Today seals, otters, seahorses and more than 100 species of fish call it home. Its recovery is not a fairy tale, n...

Britain needs new homes, but every new development brings additional demand for drinking water, wastewater treatment and drainage infrastructure. As housing targets rise and climate pressures intensif...

Ahead of World Refill Day on 16 June, the Water Matters team visited Nothing But Footprints in Banbury to meet owner Dan Ludlow and discover how a simple change in the way we shop could help tackle on...

Once Britain's fastest-declining mammal, the water vole seemed destined to disappear from our rivers and wetlands. Yet against the odds, this small creature is making a remarkable comeback, offering h...

Water companies say higher bills are needed to fund the biggest investment programme in a generation. Yet as debt piles up, infrastructure failures make headlines and customers face rising costs, many...

Britain is encouraging people back into rivers and coastal waters for wellbeing and recovery. But after years of pollution, regulatory failure and collapsing public trust, many swimmers are left navig...

As public outrage over Dirty Business grows, Tim Smedley reconnects with campaigner Ash Smith to examine the deeper questions still haunting Britain’s sewage scandal: who really regulates the regulato...

An action to write to MPs urging them to reject the Thames Water creditors' attempts to takeover the utility, signing off on pollution till 2030

As GPs increasingly prescribe wild swimming to improve mental and physical wellbeing, Britain’s polluted rivers and coastlines are turning a simple act of recovery into a public health gamble.

A retired detective, a polluted Cotswold river, and a regulatory system hollowed out from within. In the first part of this investigation, Tim Smedley traces how Britain’s sewage scandal grew from loc...

The UK’s digital boom is quietly becoming a water story. As Tim Smedley warned in last week’s Water Bankruptcy feature on WaterMatters, the country is edging towards a systemic crunch, and the hidden ...

A new UN report warns that we are no longer just facing water stress, but entering an era of irreversible “water bankruptcy”, where decades of overuse are collapsing the systems we depend on. What was...

A viral claim suggests Britain has already turned hundreds of coal shafts into gravity batteries. The truth is more measured, but no less compelling: beneath our feet lies an overlooked opportunity to...

The UK is beginning to untangle electricity prices from volatile gas markets. If successful, the shift could mean more stable bills, fairer pricing, and a faster transition to clean energy.

What if your water-butt could behave like a beaver dam, quietly holding back storms before they become floods? This week's guest author, Ari Cooper-Davis, explores how everyday rainwater systems can b...

Predictive analytics, real-time sensors, and digital twins are helping water companies move from reactive repairs to proactive network management, cutting leakage and redefining operational performanc...

The sewage dumping numbers are out and it's worse than ever.Four years after WASP's Prof Peter Hammond ripped the lid off the sewage scandal and showed an epidemic of illegal pollution, Thames Water s...

An action to write to MPs urging them to reject the Thames Water creditors' attempts to takeover the utility, signing off on pollution till 2030

From overlooked urban land to working water systems, a quiet transformation is underway. London may be the proving ground, but the opportunity stretches across every UK city.