The King’s Speech announces the Clean Water Bill
13th May 2026
Today, the King’s Speech has set out the Government’s legislative agenda for the next year, including the introduction of legislation to ‘clean up the water industry.’
The Clean Water Bill (previously referred to as the Water Reform Bill) is the most important policy change affecting freshwater in a generation, and a huge opportunity to get the foundations right for nature recovery. Specifically, Government has the chance to address two persistent failures of the water management framework – exclusion of small waters, and inadequate protection of the best freshwater habitats.
By including small waters in the official management programme, we can bring the regulatory framework up to date with new scientific evidence on the importance of these overlooked habitats. This would unlock investment in low cost, high impact restoration actions like pond creation.
By protecting the best waters, we can ensure that the highest quality habitats are maintained and restored. These habitats are indispensable refuges for our most threatened, pollution-sensitive plants and animals. Their protection is vital to safeguard these species for the long term.
In the Clean Water Now campaign, we’ve joined forces with more than 40 environmental groups, calling for a Clean Water Bill which enables action on small waters, protects our best freshwater habitats, and drives the recovery of freshwater wildlife across the length and breadth of England.
- Headwater stream in Scotland.
Restore small waters to kickstart nature recovery
Over the last 25 years, new scientific evidence has demonstrated the vital role that small waters – such as ponds, small lakes and headwater streams – play in freshwater habitat networks, often supporting more species than large rivers and lakes. The Water Framework Directive, the keystone of the current water management framework, was implemented before this evidence came to light. It therefore focuses overwhelmingly on big rivers and lakes, and ignores their myriad connections to the wider water environment, including small lakes, ponds and headwater streams.
This is a missed opportunity, because small waters are not only biodiverse – they’re also comparatively easy to restore. Because they have small catchments, and sit at the top of river systems, small waters can be quickly restored to a pristine, unpolluted state, or – in the case of ponds – created anew. As a result, they can rapidly provide clean water and boost biodiversity.
Across the water and environment sectors, the lynchpin role of small waters is increasingly recognised – but practical action is still hamstrung by our outdated regulatory framework. This drives investment away from small waters, and undermines nature recovery.
In the Clean Water Now campaign, we’re calling for small waters to be included in the new water management framework, to enable fast action on freshwater biodiversity recovery.
Small waters should be incorporated into the statutory monitoring programme, and small waters restoration measures should be written into the Management Plan for each River Basin District.
Beneath a new apex target for the water environment, Government should set specific small waters targets – potentially including action-based targets to directly drive creation and restoration.
- Pond at Cutteslowe, Oxfordshire
Protect the best freshwater habitats to safeguard threatened wildlife
To preserve the full diversity of England’s freshwater wildlife as we head into an uncertain future, the Clean Water Bill must go further than current legislation in protecting England’s highest quality waterbodies, which is set out in the Water Framework Directive.
For the past 25 years, the Water Framework Directive has set a target of Good Ecological Status for most waterbodies, and only one waterbody has ever been set a High target. But waterbodies can lose almost half of their invertebrate species and still be classed as ‘Good’. High status represents close-to-pristine conditions: this is what we should be aiming for in the new Clean Water Bill.
In the Clean Water Now campaign, we’re calling for the Clean Water Bill to set a new target for 50 waterbodies to achieve High Ecological Status.
As part of this drive towards increased ambition for the best sites, water-dependent Sites of Special Scientific Interest should be fully incorporated into the new framework. We need them to be given strong objectives to drive sites towards favourable condition – and keep them there.
The Clean Water Bill will be introduced to Parliament in this Parliamentary Session. The evidence to halt and reverse freshwater biodiversity loss is already clear – this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that must not be missed.
- New Forest in Winter - Gemma Stride