Utility Week

About Utility Week

Utility Week is the leading source of news, analysis and comment on Britain's major electricity, gas and water utilities — the trade magazine for the UK energy and water industries. Covering the regulated utilities that keep the country's lights on, homes heated and taps running, it serves the executives, managers, regulators and policymakers who run and oversee these essential services. It is published by Faversham House, the Croydon-based B2B media company, which acquired the Utility Week portfolio from Reed Business Information in August 2010. Its website is utilityweek.co.uk.

The acquisition brought a seven-strong team into Faversham House, joining an established portfolio of water, environment and sustainability titles. The deal included the utilityweek.com website, the Utility Week Achievement Awards and the Utility Week Debt Conference — making the brand a combination of journalism, awards and events for the utilities sector.

Acquisition by Faversham House, 2010

In August 2010 Faversham House acquired the Utility Week portfolio from Reed Business Information (RBI). Faversham House chief executive Amanda Barnes said the company was delighted that RBI had responded positively to its approach, and welcomed the Utility Week team into what she described as an already successful and extensive portfolio of water, environment and sustainability titles.

The acquisition, she said, underlined Faversham House's commitment to growing its position as the premier provider of information into the market, with considerable synergy alongside its Sustainabilitylive! exhibitions and its award-winning edie.net environmental information portal. RBI managing director Jane Burgess paid tribute to the Utility Week team as talented people with deep experience in their sector. The seven-strong team joined Faversham House with effect from 26 July 2010.

A Home in Water and Environment Publishing

Faversham House described itself at the time as publishing eleven business-to-business titles, including Water & Wastewater Treatment, WET News, Sustainable Business and Local Authority Waste & Recycling, alongside the annual Who's Who in the Water Industry directory and the edie.net website — plus the Sustainabilitylive! and Resource Ireland exhibitions. Utility Week slotted naturally into this portfolio.

The fit was particularly close on the water side: Faversham House's water titles gave it deep relationships with the water companies, regulators and supply chain that Utility Week also served. The acquisition created a publishing group with comprehensive coverage of the UK's utility and environmental infrastructure.

Editorial Scope: Energy and Water

Utility Week covers Britain's major electricity, gas and water utilities: the network operators, suppliers, generators and water companies, and the regulators — Ofgem and Ofwat — that oversee them. Its journalism spans the issues that define these regulated industries: price controls and investment programmes, the energy transition and net zero, water resources and leakage, customer service and vulnerability, innovation, digitalisation and workforce.

The magazine's news, analysis and comment serve an audience that operates at the intersection of commerce, regulation and public service. Utility executives must deliver returns to investors while meeting statutory duties to customers and the environment; the magazine's journalism reflects that complexity, holding the industry to account while explaining the pressures it faces.

Covering the Energy Transition

Few sectors have been transformed as profoundly as utilities since Utility Week joined Faversham House. The magazine has chronicled the decarbonisation of electricity generation, the growth of renewables, the smart meter rollout, the energy price crisis of the early 2020s and the wave of supplier failures, the reform of the retail market, and the water industry's reckoning over pollution, leakage and investment.

Its reporting on these upheavals — combining industry insight with regulatory understanding — has made it essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the UK's essential services. The energy transition and the water sector's environmental performance are the defining stories of the age for utilities, and the magazine covers them as its core beat.

The Utility Week Achievement Awards

The Utility Week portfolio includes the Utility Week Achievement Awards, the industry's celebration of excellence — recognising the companies, teams and individuals delivering outstanding performance across energy and water. The awards bring together the sector's leaders to honour innovation, customer service, environmental performance and operational excellence.

Alongside the awards, the brand's events — including conferences such as the Utility Week Debt Conference acquired in the 2010 deal — convene the industry to debate its challenges. These gatherings extend the brand from journalism into the commercial and professional life of the sector.

Readership: The Utilities Sector

Utility Week's readers are the people who run Britain's utilities: chief executives and directors, operational managers, regulatory and policy specialists, investors and advisors, and the regulators and government officials who oversee the sector. Its journalism speaks to an audience that combines commercial responsibility with public-service obligations.

The title's authority rests on its specialisation: it is the dedicated journal of the regulated utilities, covering no other sector. In industries where regulatory decisions worth billions turn on complex technical and economic arguments, that focused expertise is what makes it indispensable.

Digital Presence

Utilityweek.co.uk extends the magazine's journalism online with daily news, analysis and comment on the utilities sector — carrying breaking stories on regulation, company results, policy announcements and industry developments between print issues. The website is the digital home of the brand's journalism, awards and events.

The digital operation serves the immediacy the sector demands: utility regulation and energy markets move fast, and professionals need news as it happens. The website's continuous publishing complements the magazine's considered analysis.

Utility Week Today

From its RBI origins to its home at Faversham House, Utility Week has been the journal of Britain's utilities through an era of extraordinary change: privatisation's maturing, the climate emergency, market liberalisation and crisis, and the reinvention of water regulation. Its combination of news, analysis, awards and events makes it the sector's central forum.

As the leading source of news, analysis and comment on the electricity, gas and water industries, published by Faversham House and read at utilityweek.co.uk, it remains what the 2010 acquisition promised: the premier provider of information to the people who keep Britain's essential services running.

Acquired from RBI by Faversham House, 2010

In August 2010 Faversham House, the Sussex-based B2B media group, acquired the Utility Week portfolio from Reed Business Information. Announced on 17 August 2010, the deal brought the Utility Week website, the Utility Week Achievement Awards and the Utility Week Debt Conference into a portfolio already strong in water, environment and sustainability titles. The seven-strong Utility Week team joined Faversham House with effect from 26 July 2010. Chief executive Amanda Barnes said the acquisition underlined the company's commitment to grow its position as the premier provider of information to the market, citing considerable synergy with the Sustainabilitylive! exhibitions and the award-winning edie.net environmental information portal.

Utility Week is a leading source of news, analysis and comment on Britain's major electricity, gas and water utilities — the companies keeping the country's energy and water flowing — and the deal made it the flagship utilities brand of an independent publisher deeply embedded in the sector.

The Gould Family Business Goes Digital

Faversham House was co-founded in 1960 by Vic Gould and his business partner Jack Pearce, whose first magazine was Heating and Ventilating Review — built on a controlled-circulation model that was novel at the time — before expanding into building services and home improvement titles and regional exhibitions. Ownership passed to the next generation, and in 2010 Amanda Barnes, the founder's daughter, led a £4 million management buyout backed by Matrix Private Equity, completing the deal alongside the Utility Week acquisition. The East Grinstead-based company restructured around company culture and a move away from print dependence; it printed its last physical magazine in early 2023 and is now fully digital.

Today Faversham House describes itself as a progressive, independent media company operating in two key markets — utilities (water, gas and electricity) and sustainability — with a purpose "to spark ideas and actions" and values of being ambitious, creative and caring. Its publications include Utility Week, the Utility Week website and edie.net. The brand's website is utilityweek.co.uk.