Under investment, insufficient government strategy, and inadequate co-ordination has resulted in a failure to “treat water with the care and importance it deserves”, a House of Lords committee warns today
Peers welcome planned improvements by regulators, including linking executive pay to performance and monitors being present on all storm overflows by the end of 2023.
However the Committee found that Ofwat and the Environment Agency must go further to hold water companies to account for environmental pollution through penalties and prosecution.
The Government must ensure adequate funding is available for this.
Ofwat has failed to ensure companies invest sufficiently in water infrastructure, choosing to keep bills low at the expense of investment that is now sorely needed and needs to find ways to increase investment outside the Price Review process and consider the important role that third-party competition could play in reducing costs, as it did with the Thames Tideway tunnel project.
Water companies,they say, have been overly focused on maximising financial returns at the expense of the environment, operational performance and financial sustainability. Water companies should not be able to receive substantial bonuses while their companies have missed performance targets and polluted the water environment.
The Government,they also say, has not put in place a joined-up approach to the key issues facing the sector, including reducing water pollution and securing future supply.
Lord Hollick, Chair of the Industry and Regulators Committee, said:
“During our inquiry, we have taken evidence from local communities and activist groups and received a considerable amount of written evidence. There is an overall feeling of dismay, anguish and, anger from respondents, about the state of our waterways and the apparent failure to get to grips with the problem.
We are calling on regulators and the Government to consider our report’s findings and recommendations and act fast before we are all left up sewage creek.”
