Recommendation 24

We sought to understand would happen if a water company became insolvent. Defra told us that that the special administration regime will ensure that services are protected.78 Defra also acknowledged that there would be costs involved in setting up such a regime, which the government would seek to recover.79 If government costs cannot be recovered elsewhere, the government now has the power to recover them through customer bills.80 Defra told us that it needed to be careful about this, and the impact on billpayers.81 Roles and responsibilities within the regulatory framework