Defra has announced the launch of an Independent Commission into the water sector and its regulation, in what is expected to form the largest review of the industry since privatisation.

The Commission forms the next stage in the Government’s long-term approach to ensuring we have a sufficiently robust and stable regulatory framework to attract the investment needed to clean up our waterways, speed up infrastructure delivery and restore public confidence in the sector.

It follows the Government’s inaugural International Investment Summit last week at which the Prime Minister spoke of the need for regulation and regulators to support growth and investment in the UK.

Credit: Lisa Fotios

Launched by the UK and Welsh governments, the Commission will report back next year with recommendations to the Government on how to tackle inherited systemic issues in the water sector to restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health, meet the challenges of the future and drive economic growth.

These recommendations will form the basis of further legislation to attract long-term investment and clean up our waters for good – injecting billions of pounds into the economy, speeding up delivery on infrastructure to support house building and addressing water scarcity, given the country needs to source an additional 5 billion litres of water a day by 2050.

Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Jon Cunliffe, will chair the Commission. With several decades of economic and regulatory experience, his appointment demonstrates the Government’s serious ambitions.

The Commission will draw upon a panel of experts from across the regulatory, environment, health, engineering, customer, investor and economic sectors. It forms part of the Government’s reset of the water sector by establishing a new partnership between government, water companies, customers, investors, and all those who enjoy our waters and work to protect our environment.

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