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Live Scrap Ofwat, major water review recommends

Live Scrap Ofwat, major water review recommends

Telegraph21-07-2025
The water regulator should be abolished and replaced with a new single body covering England and Wales, a major review into the sector has urged.
Sir Jon Cunliffe, who was tasked with leading the Independent Water Commission, has recommended 88 changes to the industry which he said was 'failing' customers.
They included abolishing Ofwat, which oversees how much water companies in England and Wales can charge for services and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which ensures that public water supplies are safe.
The report, published on Monday morning, recommended far-reaching changes to the way the water system is regulated as it found the current landscape 'fragmented and overlapping'.
It also advised removing the regulatory roles of the Environment Agency and Natural England, which monitor the sector's impact on nature, such as companies illegally dumping sewage into waterways.
Sir John also said that previous governments were partly to blame, telling Times Radio 'it's the failure of government to balance out all the different pressures on water'.
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, will give a speech this morning promising that 'the failures of the past can never happen again'.
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