Can Britain make its homes flood-ready by 2039? 🌊 Discover how Flood Re is tackling flood risks and securing affordable insurance. Read more: vist.ly/5kfgw #FloodRisk #WaterMatters #Sustainability

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 at the hidden water in our diets and discovers why choosing the environmentally responsible lunch is rather more complicated than it sounds.

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 should get the vote they actually asked for. Ewan Burrowes examines what Britain’s petition system delivers, and whether the politics of water ownership may nevertheless be shifting underneath it.

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 asks whether changing our everyday habits can help build a more water-resilient Britain, and whether the rest of the system is ready to play its part too.

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 crisis before, brought science, governments and industry together, and measurably changed its trajectory. The recovery of the ozone layer cannot tell us how to solve climate change, but it can tell us something about how complex environmental problems get solved.

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 what does a very strong El Niño actually mean for our weather, and what happens when one of the planet’s most powerful natural climate cycles plays out against an already warming world?

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-resilient garden of the future will need to do more than survive both. It will need to manage water when it arrives and hold onto it when it disappears.

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 century from now. In the final part of our series, Shaun Warren asks whether designing for lower carbon is enough, or whether the Future Home must also be ready for a hotter, drier and more unpredictable world.

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 payment. With its financial future uncertain and the new Prime Minister openly questioning the future of private water ownership, does the payment reveal something more troubling than executive excess: an extraordinary failure to read the room?

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 bigger story about how easily we overlook one of our most essential resources until it comes under pressure.

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 energy system.

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 water? The answer suggests Britain is not facing a water shortage at all, but a growing water management challenge.

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 returned safely to the environment.

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, reservoirs, underground aquifers, treatment works and hundreds of miles of buried pipes.

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 deliver significantly more heat than the electricity they consume.

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 smartest. And unlike the AI-generated fantasies currently flooding social media, every one of these innovations is real.

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 technology become the preferred choice for Britain's future homes?

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, nor is it complete, but it offers a powerful reminder that environmental decline is not always permanent.

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 intensify, is our water system keeping pace?

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 one of the biggest waste challenges facing our environment

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 hope that nature can recover when people choose to give it a chance.

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 are asking a simple question: where has all the money gone?

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 navigating a public health gamble.

💧 Dive into the depths of Britain's sewage scandal with "Dirty Business: Part 2"! Uncover the truth behind the lack of regulation. Read more on Water Matters: vist.ly/55idh #SewageScandal #WaterMatters

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 local suspicion into a national crisis that would eventually become Channel 4’s Dirty Business.

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 water demands of AI, crypto, and cloud data centres are now accelerating the pressure.

💧 Ever wondered how much water your digital life consumes? Discover the hidden thirst of data centres in the UK. Dive into the story with Water Matters: vist.ly/536yn #WaterMatters #DigitalThirst

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 once a crisis defined by pressure is now characterised by permanent loss, with consequences already unfolding across food systems, cities, and ecosystems. Yet even in insolvency, there remains a path forward, if we are willing to rethink how we value and manage water.

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 store renewable energy at scale.

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 be adapted to slow the flow and build resilience where it matters most

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 performance.

New evidence shows that green roofs reduce urban flooding and heatwaves while quietly reshaping the way cities breathe, store water, and endure summer extremes.

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.

Executive bonuses, offshore structures, and a tide of public anger raise uncomfortable questions about who really benefits from England’s privatised water system.

Fresh evidence links neonicotinoid use to pollinator decline, intensifying the urgency of protecting bee populations critical to food security.