On Monday 16 October, members of the House of Lords will debate the Industry and Regulators Committee’s report: ‘The affluent and the effluent: cleaning up failures in water and sewage regulation.’
The debate is expected to begin around 4pm and can be followed live or afterwards on Parliament TV.
The committee has recently completed a follow up inquiry into Ofwat, the water industry and the role of Government. In the resulting letter to Thérèse Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the committee criticised the “dismissive brevity and complacent tone” of the Government’s response to the initial report.
Lord Hollick, Chair of the Industry and Regulators Committee said:
“While the Government has begun to set out its vision for the sector, our cross-party committee has concluded unanimously that there is insufficient policy or drive to meet the Government’s targets. Sadly, the only thing that is becoming clear in the murky, polluted waters of the sewage crisis is a lack of leadership and deep-rooted complacency.
“The Government must therefore provide firmer policy detail and greater guidance to regulators, who cannot be left to resolve these huge challenges by themselves. In particular, the Government must give clear guidance on the trade-off between much-needed investment and the level of customer bills. We look forward to the response from the Secretary of State, setting out how she intends to do this.”
