Wave is redefining what it means to be one of the UK’s largest and most sustainable non-household water retailer
On a mission to help drive water efficiency and lower monthly bills, Wave provides reliable water and wastewater solutions to more than 300,000 businesses across the UK. Alongside a full scope of water services like meter readings, billing and account maintenance, and pipe or leakage repair, Wave strives to influence the wider industry through its wealth of expertise and thought leadership, with a particular emphasis on sustainable waste management.
In the UK, the non-household water market was deregulated in 2017, meaning that businesses, charities, and public sector organizations could choose their water retailer rather than being tied to a single regional provider. Formed as a joint venture between Anglian Water and Northumbrian Water, Wave has evolved into one of the UK’s largest water retailer by consumption, with a range of services available for SME, industrial, commercial, and public sector organizations.
Lucy Darch, CEO, joins us to elaborate on the growth of Wave and the services it provides. “Our revenue and profit growth has been incredible; when we last spoke in 2024, our revenue was approximately £493 million, but now in 2026, this figure has grown to around £700 million,” Lucy opens. “Although our service offering is mostly the same, we’ve expanded our water efficiency services proposition to provide more data insights to our customers aimed at reducing water consumption. We send out high consumption and continuous flow alerts, for instance, which can make customers aware of potential leaks.
“Customer experience is central to our organization, and we’re constantly finding ways to improve our service. We pride ourselves on being easy to contact and deal with, especially in stressful times. We’ve recently invested in a new call platform called Puzzel, for instance, to give us more insight into why customers are calling us. This will allow us to create more online support for customers and even drive improvements in our My Account customer portal. By making certain things easier for our customers to do online, we free up more time for customer calls regarding issues like leaks and moving in or out of a property.”
As industry-leading thought leaders in sustainable water use, Wave is an influential force in helping customers to reduce water consumption. “Since the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced a target to reduce non-household customer water consumption by nine percent by 2038, wholesalers have had to rethink their water efficiency strategy,” Lucy explains.
“Aimed at reducing water consumption in schools, we launched the Big Blue Eco Booster Project, a huge efficiency initiative with an overall goal to save two million cubic meters of water across England, Scotland, and Wales. In partnership with SaveMoneyCutCarbon, we offer wholesaler-funded audits to ensure appropriate water usage for schools served by: Northumbrian Water, Essex & Suffolk Water, Anglian Water, Portsmouth Water, United Utilities, Cambridge Water, and South East Water. Our goal is to reduce each school’s water consumption by ten percent, but on top of moving towards the DEFRA target, schools also save an average of £700 per year on their water bills.”
Social and Sustainability Promise
Aside from these initiatives, Wave has also established internal targets for water efficiency as part of its Social and Sustainability Promise. “We’re trying to save 11 million cubic meters of water in annualized savings for our customers this year,” Lucy states. “This is a complex task as many of our customers are exploring carbon reduction strategies that require additional water, such as carbon capture or hydrogen production, which might not be available. We’ve also partnered with Durham University to conduct research around how much water would be required to hit the UK’s net-zero goals, and this will provide a better insight into how to manage water scarcity challenges alongside essential decarbonization strategies.”
Innovative technologies have an important role to play in promoting and enabling water efficiency in the UK. “We began working with Infersens, a smart sensor company, on a project to improve how non-household organizations like nursing homes and student accommodation test for Legionella,” Lucy explains. “Infersens’ flagship technology, Cortense, is a non-invasive, wireless sensor system that monitors water flow and temperature in real-time, eliminating the need for flushing and manual temperature checks, which is estimated to account for up to eight percent of total non-household water consumption in the UK.
“When we were working with Infersens on the project using this transformative technology, the opportunity arose to acquire the assets and IP from the company. We’ve now acquired all of that and we’re very excited about the technology’s potential to save water that would have previously been unnecessarily wasted.”
With these innovations now in its portfolio, alongside impressive growth and emphasis on thought leadership, Wave is clearly emerging as an advocate for sustainable water use in the UK’s non-household water sector. As our conversation ends, Lucy turns to what’s next for the business. “We’ve got two important projects for the remainder of 2026,” she states. “First, we’re investing in the My Account platform through a new partnership with a digital agency called The Bang. We want to make the platform more intuitive and tailored to customers’ specific needs. Secondly, we’re working with a company called Wheatley to change our meter reading software and create potential for optimized meter reading validation. We’ve currently got around 50,000 smart meters within the network and we’re still learning all the benefits in terms of accurate billing and consumption visibility, so this new capability will be a game changer for the industry.
“An important milestone, our tenth birthday, is coming up in April 2027, so we’re also preparing to mark that occasion with a huge celebration,” Lucy concludes. “Beyond that I’d like to see Wave rolling out our Cortense devices across the globe, as well as a more substantial water efficiency division that is playing a major role in hitting the nine-percent DEFRA target.”