On Monday, the Independent Water Commission published its final findings into a comprehensive review of the water sector following a Call for Evidence and extensive engagement with a diverse set of stakeholders. The report can be found at: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687dfcc4312ee8a5f0806be6/Independent_Water_Commission_-_Final_Report_-_21_July.pdf
Commenting, Richard Fuller MP said:
At last! Today a thorough and serious review of the UK water industry has been published by its chair, Sir Jon Cunliffe.
He is to be commended. This final report contains number of very sensible recommendations:
- The powers of different regulators should be combined in one agency
- There should be more long term thinking on managing water resources: it will be more efficient and help attract more private investment
- The government needs to give greater clarity from government on its priorities so water companies are clearer on trade offs
- Water companies should improve their governance to reflect better their public duties and licence conditions should be toughened up.
The government has already committed to the abolition of the current regulator OFWAT and its replacement with a new unified regulator as recommended by Sir Jon Cunliffe. I hope this government will look closely at the other recommendations as well. I had urged the last government to strengthen oversight of our regulators such as OFWAT, OFGEM etc. It is very positive that this government is now taking long overdue action.
