UK water reform demands operational resilience now

The Independent Water Commission’s final report didn’t just signal reform—it issued a mandate to dismantle and rebuild. The recommendations—including the end of operator self-monitoring, the establishment of nine regional authorities, and the shift to digitally assured compliance—signal more than incremental reform. They mark a structural reset of the UK water sector.

For utility leaders, this imposes a looming deadline. Fieldwork that can’t be verified in real time won’t satisfy future audits, secure public confidence, or in the eyes of the regulator, justify funding.

Legacy oversight models—built around paperwork, post-job reporting, and site visits—are no longer viable. And in this new environment, the difference between resilience and risk will come down to operational evidence.

FYLD is the infrastructure for operational integrity

Field teams today still largely capture evidence after the fact. Managers rely on delayed updates. Regulators wait for polished reports. And the public—watching raw sewage flow into waterways without the deep knowledge the sector has on the root causes of these flows and the complexity of fixing them—has stopped believing any of it. That’s the gap FYLD closes.

FYLD’s platform transforms fieldwork into live operational intelligence. It combines mobile video, AI-powered workflows, and automated risk detection to provide real-time visibility from the job site to the boardroom. Every site action is time-stamped, geotagged, and auditable, eliminating lag, guesswork, and opacity from critical operations.

FYLD’s platform is already enabling this level of oversight at scale. At Southern Water, it powered more than 60,000 remote interventions giving managers the ability to step in before risks escalated and helped reduce safety incidents by 50%. It is exciting to see some of the UK’s most forward thinking utilities adopt emerging technology tools ahead of regulatory mandates.

Ending self-monitoring demands new enforcement tools

Sir Jon Cunliffe’s report makes one point unmistakable: the current system of operator-reported data is broken. But removing self-monitoring doesn’t work unless it's replaced by verifiable, automated oversight.

FYLD delivers that capability by embedding intelligence directly into the flow of work. Field teams log risk mitigations through mobile video while AI scans those inputs in real time, flagging compliance gaps before they escalate into regulatory issues. Supervisors and regulators can intervene remotely based on live, structured data—without driving to site or waiting for weekly reports. The result is a complete digital footprint of safety, compliance, and delivery—generated passively, not manually recreated

Regional authorities need a unified view, FYLD provides it

With nine regional planning bodies set to steer strategy and funding, the ability to see and act across multiple contractors and networks is now mission-critical. But governance doesn’t drive outcomes, data does.

FYLD enables shared visibility across contractors, job sites, and asset classes. Every authority can monitor performance, track risk patterns, and hold partners accountable in real time, not just retrospectively. And because FYLD works even in low-signal areas, coverage remains consistent even where connectivity doesn’t.

• 33% faster programme delivery
  

• 48% fewer lost-time injuries in a single year

• Significant gains in contractor productivity and cost efficiency

Oversight has shifted from an admin burden to a competitive advantage.

AMP8 isn’t a regulatory plan, it’s a resilience test.

Infrastructure fragility, climate volatility, and growing demand are accelerating, but delivery capabilities haven’t kept pace. The AMP8 cycle will expose which utilities have made the right investments to drive step change outcomes in the issues the Public care about - pollution, and leakage.

FYLD equips teams to move faster and reduce incident rates with predictive oversight and live execution control:

• 15% reduction in rework 
  

• 20% fewer job blockers

• 36% less manager travel with increased oversight capacity

• 40% reduction in leakage run times
  

• Fine reductions into the millions

Trust - whether lost fairly or unfairly - isn’t restored through rhetoric, it’s rebuilt through results. Through less discharges of sewers into our beaches, to material reductions in leakage that let the hose pipes keep running (or maybe we’ll help households understand that in a world of climate change, their contribution to using less water is a really good thing)

FYLD doesn’t just digitise processes. It operationalises integrity. It creates the transparency that regulators demand and the performance that builds public trust.

Want to lead the next phase of water sector resilience?  Book a demo and see how FYLD can help..