Lighthouse Policy Design’s Post

🚫 Don’t recreate the wheel! Crafting effective policies is a top priority for proactive governments. By adopting strategic approaches, agencies can create regulations that truly serve their communities. These are our top 5 pieces of advice for proactive governments looking to make the best possible policy for residents: https://hubs.la/Q02Zp_G_0

Policy Levers in the Immediate Impact quadrants of the Policy Design Matrix are designed to produce fast results. In this blog post, we introduce the 8 Policy Levers teams can use when the pressure is on to make and immediate impact. https://lnkd.in/eKnCZWVv

The Senate Standing Committee on Water Resources, chaired by Senator Shahadat Awan, convened on Tuesday to review pressing issues related to water sector governance and… Read More: https://lnkd.in/dWzVNDSs

This week the Government released its second Amendment Bill this year aimed at providing "quick fixes" to the RMA while its replacement is being progressed. The proposed amendments contained in the Bill are wide-ranging and cover five main themes: infrastructure and energy, housing growth, farming and the primary sector, natural hazards and emergencies, and system improvements. Our experts outline the key aspects of these themes in our latest Resource Management Update: https://lnkd.in/gzRaEVpa #RMA #Resourcemanagement #infrastructure Allison Arthur-Young | Daniel Minhinnick | Simon Pilkinton | Lauren Rapley | Kristen Gunnell

During the State Opening of Parliament the King set out the government’s priorities for the coming months. This included a new Water (Special Measures) Bill to strengthen regulation, give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met and increase accountability for water executives. #WaterCompanies #Water #DEFRA #SewageDumping #SpecialMeasures https://lnkd.in/eHtqpG2D

Incredible panel with some of my favorite women. I love to discuss the future of water, regulation, and the role of data 📊 💕 💧

Need action water is very important

The Environment Secretary, Steve Reed devoted over half of his short allocated speech-time at the labour party conference yesterday to the water industry and more importantly to his current perception of the industry. https://lnkd.in/epW_egmH He started with “Our rivers and seas are polluted” and “Our once-pristine waterways are overflowing with raw, toxic sewage”. Then, unsurprisingly he blamed the last Government for their bonfire of regulations that led to abuses in water regulation. Specifically he said “The Conservatives just stood back and watched as raw sewage polluted our rivers and customers' money was funnelled into multimillion pound bonuses and dividend payments while our sewage system crumbled”. He then outlined his priorities in dealing with the current situation by promising to fix the foundations and clean up the waterways. He said that “money ringfenced for investment will be spent on fixing broken water infrastructure and refunded to customers if it's not” and promised to “… ban the multimillion pound bonuses water bosses paid themselves for overseeing repeated illegal sewage dumping” and promised to give Ofwat more teeth to prosecute polluters. Interestingly he linked the investment needed to fix the broken sewage system with creating good, well-paid jobs in every single part of our country, something some of us have been calling for for years. Overall, there was nothing new but it seems that Steve Reed is determined not to be distracted by populist governance changes. He will depend on Ofwat to demand the improvements required through a tough PR24 determination and then to oversee (with teeth) the privatised water industry and its supply chain to deliver what will be the biggest water capital programme ever. Interesting times indeed.

On reaching transboundary water governance in Greater Geneva 💧💡 What type of policy instruments contribute to reaching transboundary water governance in Greater Geneva? What are the underlying drivers that led to the success or failures of implementing policy instruments at the transboundary level? Christian Bréthaut, Sumit Vij, Gilles Mulhauser, Sepideh Nayemi, Guillaume Marsac and Hervé Fauvain and answering these questions in a new article: 'Policy instruments for governing water in cross-border metropolitan areas'. Don't miss it! https://buff.ly/4acpkKP

The current RMA seeks to integrate land use activities and protect the environment - this has not worked. The Coalition agreement states that the RMA will be replaced with a system based on enjoyment of property. I shared some ideas how this would work with Brent Edwards at NBR. What could this mean for the environment? Setting environmental limits for minimum fresh water flows would in effect establish that a river had a "right" to a certain allocation of freshwater. Having a right to build water storage and share water between properties means that market based tools can be used to help water users find the best value for money way to get the water they need.