The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee will continue its inquiry on the work of Ofwat, the UK’s water regulator, by taking evidence from Ofwat’s CEO David Black, and Chair Iain Coucher from 10.30am on Tuesday 25 October.
Issues that will be covered in the session include:
- Whether Ofwat has the right statutory objectives to do its job and how it balances the tension between long-term investment and keeping costs to the consumer down.
- Whether Ofwat’s price reviews allow water companies to make adequate long-term plans and investments.
- Ofwat’s role in holding water companies to account for sewage discharge and if it has done enough to hold water companies to their statutory obligations.
- The appropriateness of water companies paying out large shareholder dividends and executive renumeration in light of their poor performance on environmental standards and water loss.
- Whether fines for breaches of environmental standards are seen by companies as a cost of doing business
- Whether Ofwat would support criminal sanctions for bosses of water companies who consistently fail in their environmental obligations.
- What Ofwat is doing to ensure the security of future water supply in light of climate change, and whether new reservoirs are needed.
Launched in May 2022, the Committee’s Ofwat inquiry is considering the water sector regulator’s performance against its statutory objectives and whether it has the powers and resources needed to meet those objectives.
Earlier this month Environment Agency CEO Sir James Bevan and Chair Alan Lovell were questioned by the Committee on whether the water companies in England have made sufficient investment over the last decade, whether they should have been doing more over the last ten years and whether the Environment Agency itself had lacked the necessary resources for its monItoring activities.
Sir James Bevan told the Committee that “population growth, climate change and public awareness have led us to where we are” with regard to ongoing problems with storm overflow sewage discharges."
Sarah Bentley- CEO at Thames Water, Peter Perry - CEO at Welsh Water and Lawrence Gosden - CEO at Southern Water have also appeared before the Committee to give evidence and answer questions in person.
Follow tomorrow's evidence session live on Parliament TV
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
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