Cunliffe review into water industry doesn’t tell us anything new and simply abolishing Ofwat won't provide the fix
The water industry has failed customers and the environment. Their actions have been nothing short of a disgrace. And it is evident that the cost of this negligence is going to land in the laps of ratepayers.
The independent review by Sir Jon Cunliffe didn’t tell the public anything that it did not already know. Regulation of the water industry has been abject. Ofwat has been about as effective as a life raft with a hole at the bottom of it.
However, the call from Sir Jon to address fragmentation in regulation of the water industry is of merit. As is the recommendation to end "operator self monitoring". Water companies cannot be trusted to mark their own homework.
The report also says the Government should be using its new Water Special Measures Act to impose more penalties on water companies more quickly. The question is does it have the stomach to do so.
In a speech at the London Water and Steam Museum, Sir Jon compared the current water crisis to the “great stink” of 1888. What stinks, aside from the sewage in our rivers and on our beaches, is the moral bankruptcy fire within the water sector.
Access to clean water is an inalienable right. For Britain to come to these sort of crisis levels is unacceptable.
The reality is that while we face a very real danger of water shortages, yet foreign investors profit off the back of this misery. And the Cunliffe review fell short because who owns the water firms and nationalisation were off the table.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed announced that Ofwat would be abolished, following the Cunliffe report. However, that will not fix the issues in the water sector.
As Feargal Sharkey points out, at the heart of the issue is "corporate greed and the exploitation and abuse of bill payers and the environment".