Water Bills, Ownership and Regulation

Last Updated October 2025

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The performance of water companies has been a source of deep frustration for us all. Customers have faced rising bills while record levels of sewage have been discharged into rivers and seas. Executives have continued to take excessive bonuses, and profits have too often been prioritised over environmental protection and customer service. Communities have been left to pay the price for years of underinvestment in essential infrastructure. The system is broken.

These problems were made worse by weak regulation and the failure to hold companies properly accountable. That is why Parliament has passed the Water (Special Measures) Act, which gives regulators stronger powers to act. Under these reforms, regulators can block bonuses for executives responsible for pollution, bring criminal charges against repeat offenders, and impose automatic fines for environmental damage.

I voted in favour of the legislation, because we have seen along our coastline the impact of pollution and sewage dumping. We have seen how profits have been extracted for short-term gain, rather than reinvested in infrastructure and environmental protection. It cannot be allowed to continue.

The government has also confirmed a new Ombudsman will be established, and funding will be secured for critical infrastructure upgrades, with protections in place to prevent investment being diverted elsewhere. New rules will require water companies to put customers and the environment at the heart of their objectives. Compensation for households and businesses affected by service disruptions will be doubled, and new customer panels will be able to hold company leaders directly accountable. These are the first steps, with a tough new water sector regime planned in the Water White Paper due in early 2026. I am continually raising local issues with ministers, and will read the White Paper and back new legislation associated with it.

Together, I believe this policy direction represents an important step towards restoring public trust, improving the performance of the water industry, and protecting the environment. By enforcing higher standards and strengthening oversight, we can begin to clean up our rivers, lakes, and seas while ensuring that customers get a fairer deal. But I believe it is only the first step. A deeper question remains about the long-term ownership and structure of the water industry itself. When our water company lets us down, we cannot shop around and choose another; water companies operate as regional monopolies, providing an essential public service. Around the world there are different approaches, from publicly owned national companies, to municipal systems run by local authorities, to cooperative models owned by customers and workers. I believe the Government ought to seriously explore these alternatives to ensure that water is managed for the long-term public good.