Water company business plans are released every five years. Through the ‘Price Review’ process, Ofwat set the price, service and investment package that water company customers will receive, including what companies are allowed to charge their customers in order to fund the works set out in their Business Plans. The current round of planning, covering 2025-2030, is called PR24.

We need a significant step-change in ambition and delivery to ensure that England’s rivers, lakes, estuaries and coasts are returned to good ecological health by 2027, that 30% of land and sea is protected for nature’s recovery, and that the decline of species halted by 2030. The ambition - and delivery - of water company business plans in PR24 will play a central role in the achievement, or the failure, of these Government targets for nature recovery.