By 12 October 2026 neither Defra nor the Environment Agency had named a next chair on GOV.UK, whose Environment Agency page still lists Alan Lovell as chair, and the last chair announcement found is his 8 June notice that he will leave at the end of December.
The Environment Agency market resolves YES if Defra or the Environment Agency names the next chair, or a chair-designate, in an announcement published on or before 12 October 2026. GOV.UK settles it, with the Guardian and BBC reports of the announcement as the backup.
Britain has taken five companies into state hands since 2008 and put its own people in charge of each. We checked whether new public money was promised within a month of the state naming its leaders. It came in four of the five. The exception, the Post Office, was the only one of them not losing money every week.