L

Lord Katz (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 January 2026

Debate

Independent Water Commission

Contribution

The noble Lord is certainly right to recognise the importance of the recommendation by Sir Jon, in the commission report, of establishing a single powerful regulator for the entire water sector that will stand on the side of customers. He is right that the new regulator needs a wide range of skills, not only in terms of knowledge and understanding of the environment, customer service and regulation but also in terms of financial incentives. In the price review of 2024, we have seen the commitment to more than £100 billion of future investment in water infrastructure. In fact, since Ofwat announced its final determination, water companies have already raised over £2 billion in new equity investment. There is work going on, but he is absolutely right that there is no point having a single powerful regulator that is not able to regulate across the land and across the entire water sector’s activity.

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