How to reform the water industry

Bobby Dean explains the Liberal Democrats' proposals to radically change the way our water companies are run.

The drought this summer, hosepipe bans around the country and pleas for us to use less water once again highlight the shocking state of our national water infrastructure.

The water industry regulator, Ofwat, reckoned that about a fifth of all fresh water put into the system gets lost as leaks. Campaign group River Action estimates that Thames Water leaks 570 million litres of treated drinking water every day, as well as being responsible for sewage discharges in our area.

We are lucky in Sutton that our local drinking water supplier, SES Water, has one of the lowest leakage rates in the country, but they still lose about 76 litres per property per day .

As many of you know, I have been an active campaigner for change in the water industry due to the shocking sewage and oil pollution of our local River Wandle, one of London’s precious chalk streams, destroying wildlife and threatening years of ecological recovery. I and the other Liberal Democrats in Parliament are calling for major reform:

• Transform water companies into public benefit companies, focused on people and the environment, not just profit.
• Introduce a Sewage Tax on water company profits to fund clean-up efforts and infrastructure upgrades
• Set legally binding targets to end sewage dumping into bathing waters and sensitive nature sites by 2030
• Protect customers from rising bills: We’ve fought to ensure that creditors, not bill payers, cover the cost when water companies go bankrupt. It’s unacceptable that over a third of your water bill goes toward servicing company debt instead of fixing leaks or cleaning up pollution. 

We are pleased to see the Government has backed our manifesto call to scrap Ofwat and replace it with a tough new regulator. We want to ensure that this new body has the powers to revoke licences, ban executive bonuses, and mandate real-time data on sewage discharges.

Locally, I’ll continue to fight for the Wandle and for clean, safe water across our community. Nationally, I’ll keep pushing for a system that prioritises transparency, accountability, security of supply, and environmental protection.

– Bobby Dean