Emma Hardy

Emma Hardy

Labour — Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice

Speaking in the House of Commons on 3 June 2026

Debate

South East Water: Disruption of Supply

Contribution

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. As the White Paper set out: “Where a water company might want to transition to a new ownership model, such as a not-for-profit, the regulator will develop a transparent process to assess whether a water company’s requested move to a new model should go ahead”. We are looking at developing a transparent process, if that is something that the water company might want to consider. My hon. Friend is absolutely right about increasing the customer voice. On day one when this Government came to power we announced new consumer boards for water companies. The Consumer Council for Water has covered the entire country, gathering together different people for customer panels. It has already held a customer panel in the South East Water area, so that customers can hold water company bosses to account—it works very much like a Select Committee hearing. I will share the report from that panel with the House. It is interesting that the No. 1 issue that came up for the water company to tackle was the lack of adequate communication. That does not require millions or billions of pounds spent on a reservoir—it just requires competence.

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