Select committee: Industry and Regulators Committee
Recommendation 8
1st Report - The affluent and the effluent: cleaning up failures in water and sewage regulation
Published 22 Mar 2023
Paragraph 79
Industry and Regulators Committee The work of Ofwat All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Ofwat needs clear guidance from the Government on how it should balance and prioritise its objectives. The Government should do this through its Strategic Policy Statement (SPS). However, the 2022 SPS failed to give a sense of prioritisation, particularly in relation to the balance between the affordability of bills and infrastructure and environmental investment. We recognise the concern that more directive Statements could impact Ofwat’s independence, but it is critical that elected politicians take controversial decisions which will have financial and environmental consequences for many generations, rather than passing that responsibility to regulators. The Government has not yet shown the necessary political will to make these decisions on the most important issues facing the sector.
From: Industry and Regulators Committee, 1st Report - The affluent and the effluent: cleaning up failures in water and sewage regulation, paragraph 79, 22 March 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 5 June 2023 (deadline 22 May 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government points to its Plan for Water and Environmental Improvement Plan as addressing many of the Committee's recommendations, and responds to each recommendation in turn, with some positions stated and others referred to those plans.
- On the Strategic Policy Statement, the Government "does not intend to update the SPS", citing Ofwat's ongoing 2024 Price Review process (PR24).
- On a single social tariff, the response states "There are no plans to introduce a single social tariff".
- On wet wipes, the Government says it "will change the law to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic, subject to public consultation".
- On storm overflows, the Government says it has committed to review the Discharge Reduction Plan in 2027, so that companies "remain as ambitious as possible, while balancing the impact on bills".