Government to launch new water ombudsman to boost consumer protection
The changes, which will expand the role of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), will bring the sector into line with other utilities by creating a legally binding consumer watchdog.
It will also provide a single point of contact for consumers with complaints, instead of leaving them uncertain about where to go.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the new watchdog would help 're-establish partnership' between water companies and consumers.
In May, a survey by the CCW found trust in water companies had reached a new low, with less than two-thirds of people saying they provided value for money.
Only 53% said they thought what water companies charged was fair, even before the impact of a 26% increase in bills that came into effect in April.
CCW chief executive Mike Keil said he welcomed the move to create a mandatory ombudsman, saying it had been a 'key ask' of his organisation 'so people can have absolute confidence that when they complain, they have robust protection'.
The new ombudsman is part of Mr Reed's wider plans for a 'root and branch reform' of the water industry, set to be unveiled alongside a major review of the sector on Monday.
Following publication of the review, he is expected to say: 'The water industry is broken. Our rivers, lakes and seas are polluted with record levels of sewage.
'Water pipes have been left to crumble into disrepair. Soaring water bills are straining family finances.
'Today's final report from Sir Jon Cunliffe's Independent Water Commission offers solutions to fix our broken regulatory system so the failures of the past can never happen again.'
The key recommendation is expected to involve scrapping Ofwat and creating a new regulator, which could incorporate the work of the CCW.
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said stronger consumer protections were 'welcome in principle' but only 'part of the serious long-term reforms the water sector needs'.
She said: 'We all want the water system to improve, and honesty about the scale of the challenge is essential. Steve Reed must explain that bill payers are paying for the £104 billion investment plan. Ministers must also explain how replacing one quango with another is going to clean up our rivers and lakes.
'Public confidence in the water system will only be rebuilt through transparency, resilience, and delivery.'
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron called for Ofwat to be scrapped, saying the sector needed 'fundamental change, not another layer of bureaucracy'.
He added: 'If Ofwat remains in either name or nature, then the Government will have let the public down.
'Simply scrapping Ofwat but retaining a balkanised and weak regulatory framework will only be window dressing, so we are interested in the Government's proposals but the jury is still out as to whether they'll make much difference.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
5 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The mountainous public debts we are running up will crush our children's futures
In 1928 the banker Gaspard Farrer anonymously established The National Fund, a charity dedicated to paying off the national debt. In 2025, Britain finally smashed open the piggy bank, with £586 million in funds put to use buying up Government bonds. It offset a little less than a day's borrowing. June may have been a particularly poor month to choose, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves overseeing £20.7 billion of public sector net borrowing – the second highest level for the month since records began in 1993, with only the chaos of 2020's pandemic exceeding it – but it is still a potent illustration of the sheer scale of Britain's indebtedness. Despite repeated warnings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and rising signs of alarm in the bond markets, the Government appears set to continue in its path of high taxes and even higher spending, crushing the life out of the economy even as it piles up debts to be repaid. The obsession with meeting the Government's short-run fiscal rules notwithstanding, there is no seeming attention paid to the long term position of this country, and no appetite for the sort of changes needed to rein in current spending: reforming benefits or reshaping the NHS. It is hard to think of a better illustration than the cavalier treatment of Mr Farrer's bequest: consuming the inheritances given to us by our ancestors in order to fund lifestyles we will not always be able to afford. And with each month of staggeringly high borrowing, the end of the track creeps nearer. If nothing else, this is a poor way to treat our descendents, who will find themselves footing the bill.
Times
33 minutes ago
- Times
Rachel Reeves warned that deregulation risks financial crisis
The governor of the Bank of England has warned Rachel Reeves that cutting red tape on the banking sector risks sparking another financial crisis as he downplayed the rise in UK government debt costs. Andrew Bailey told a group of influential MPs on Tuesday that rolling back restrictions on the City and ditching bank ringfencing guidelines could destabilise the UK financial system and 'would not be [a] sensible' decision for the time being. In a near two-hour long session with the Treasury select committee before the parliamentary summer recess, Bailey also said that the rise in long-term government debt costs was not 'unique' to the UK. He said investors were ditching US assets to curb their exposure to the dollar owing to concerns about the economy since President Trump returned to the White House. The governor, who, alongside his role at the central bank, recently took up the chairmanship of the Financial Stability Board, said he could understand why some people would think that 'the financial crisis is now way in the past, we've got past that, that's all solved, that's all out of the way, move on'. However, he said that 'for those of us who were veterans of sorting the problems of [the financial crisis] out' there remained a live threat to financial stability which required lawmakers to retain robust regulations. His comments come after the chancellor told bankers at the annual Mansion House dinner this month that the UK's regulatory regime was a 'boot on the neck' of businesses which risked 'choking [them] off'. Bailey, 66, said he would not have used such phrasing. Reeves announced that the government would reform laws that require lenders to separate their retail and investment banking businesses, a requirement put in place after the 2008 global financial crisis to shield depositors from banks' riskier activities. Several City grandees, including Sir John Vickers, the architect of the ringfencing rules, have expressed concern at the government's deregulation drive, which is intended to reverse weak economic growth. Bailey also downplayed the rise in UK government borrowing costs and said that it was part of a worldwide trend created by Trump's volatile tariff policymaking and a general rise in public deficit spending. 'We've seen an increase in term premium in government bond markets… yield curves have steepened', Bailey said, adding this was 'a global phenomenon, it is not in any sense unique [to the UK]'. The rate on the 30-year UK government bond, or gilt, stands at 5.43 per cent, up from 4.67 per cent compared to a year ago. The yield, which moves inversely to prices, on the US equivalent has risen to 4.93 per cent from 4.48 per cent over the same period. Bailey's comments come as figures from the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday showed that UK debt interest spending jumped to £16.4 billion in June, the second-highest for that month since the records began in 1997. Government borrowing topped £20 billion in the month also, above the Office for Budget Responsibility's projection for the month, strengthening expectations for tax increases at the autumn budget. Trump's erratic decision-making on how much to tax imports from specific countries had led to 'rebalancing' among markets 'which involves a reduction in exposure to dollar assets', Bailey said. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six comparable currencies, is down nearly 10 per cent since the start of the year. The governor said that, judging by conversations with market participants and based on granular data, 'the most crowded trade in the market at the moment is short dollar'. He said that since Trump first announced his 'reciprocal tariffs' in April, there had been 'a breakdown in established correlations in markets'. Stock markets globally jolted lower in the immediate aftermath of Trump's first tariff announcements, with the S&P 500 index posting one of its largest losses since the Great Depression. However, an equity rally has since pushed several indices to a record high. This week, the FTSE 100 closed at its highest-ever level of just over 9,000 points. Taxes on goods imported to the US from most countries will increase sharply from August 1 after Trump delayed the implementation of his 'reciprocal tariffs' several times.
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Channel migrant crossings to double if Starmer crackdown fails
The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is forecast to double this year unless new government measures can curb the flow, independent modelling shows. The research by Richard Wood, one of Britain's top modelling forecasters, takes account of not only weather and sea conditions but also includes asylum grant rates, illegal immigration flows into Europe and dinghy size. His analysis, originally based on five years of data up to the end of 2024, has been accurate in forecasting the numbers reaching the UK so far this year based on 'favourable' weather conditions. More than 23,000 migrants have reached the UK this year, the highest in the first six months of any year since the first arrivals in 2018, which is nearly exactly what Mr Wood's good weather model predicted. He has now updated his analysis, based on the latest asylum grant rates, increasing dinghy size and immigration flows into the EU, and re-run the modelling based on weather data over the past 16 years. The data suggest that unless Sir Keir Starmer is successful in his attempt to stop the people smugglers, migrant crossings will rocket this year. The Prime Minister has negotiated a 'one in,one out' deal with the French by which illegal migrants coming to the UK will be swapped for people who are able to come here legally. If the weather is as good as it was in 2024, when there was a surge in crossings in the second half of the year, then the total number reaching the UK by the end of 2025 will be 44,628, according to Mr Wood's model. This is just below the number of migrant arrivals in 2022, the highest on record, when 45,774 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. If, however, the weather is as bad as it was in the second half of 2023, then the total number crossing will be as low as 36,965. This would still be the second highest total on record. The data provide a benchmark against which the Government's new policy measures could be judged to establish if they have an effect on reducing the crossings. Mr Wood said: 'With the 37th UK-France Summit including various deterrent and enforcement pledges for reducing small-boat crossings, these predictions may serve as a useful benchmark against which progress can be assessed.' As well as the 'one in, one out' deal struck with Sir Keir, France is preparing to introduce tougher tactics where officers from an elite police unit will intercept the people smugglers' boats at sea within 300 metres of the coast in an attempt to stop them leaving the coast. They have also been experimenting with jet skis laying nets to snag the dinghies' propellers. Last week, Sir Keir secured a pledge from Friedrich Merz, the Germany's chancellor, that the country would introduce a new law by the end of the year to enable police to seize boats for use by people smugglers in the Channel. The model, which is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a migration journal, draws on data from sources including the Met Office, Channel Coastal Observatory, Home Office and European Border and Coast Guard Agency. It predicts the daily number of small-boat migrant arrivals for scenarios based on weather and sea conditions, EU illegal immigration, and other factors which may have a deterrent effect. It has two parts: the first that estimates the probability of a day being 'viable', and the second that estimates the number of migrant arrivals on such viable days. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'What we already know for sure is that 2025 to date has been the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the channel – it's up 50 per cent versus last year. 'The Government's laughable claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters. Now they think that confiscating mobile phones and sending a tiny number of people to France will make a difference 'Only a removals deterrent will end this madness – where every illegal immigrant is immediately removed upon arrival to their country of origin or to a safe third country. But Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer are too weak to do that.'
