Compulsory water meters proposed and warning bills to rise by 30% - landmark report into 'broken' water industry released
• Single integrated water regulators - a single water regulator in England and a single water regulator in Wales. In England, this would replace Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and water-environment related functions from the Environment Agency and Natural England. In Wales, Ofwat's economic responsibilities would be integrated into Natural Resources Wales...
• Eight new regional water system planning authorities in England and one national authority in Wales to be responsible for water investment plans reflecting local priorities and streamlining the planning processes...
• Greater consumer protection - this includes upgrading the consumer body Consumer Council for Water, into an Ombudsman for Water to give stronger protection to customers and a clearer route to resolving complaints. Advocacy duties are to be transferred to Citizens Advice.
This is likely to result in the same functions and the same people subsumed into a larger hierarchy. It's how these things are done. Not that reform of some kind isn't worthwhile, but here in the UK we don't have the political will to deliver it, hence the 30% increase in bills and it won't stop there.
It's not the 'broken' water industry, but the broken politics we have to be concerned about. Listen carefully and the anguished cry is almost audible already - "it's worse than we thought."
3 comments:
"This is likely to result in the same functions and the same people subsumed into a larger hierarchy."
Which will require more oversight committee meetings to coordinate plans, plus more reporting. Plans which will never be completed and reports which will never be read.
Occasionally I sympathise with NIMBY arguments - after all, any new building can be guaranteed to be ugly. But I have never had any sympathy for the bloody fools who have opposed building new reservoirs. I've yet to see an ugly reservoir.
DJ - yes that's just how it will go, and everything is likely to be slower than it is now.
dearieme - I generally sympathise with NIMBY arguments pushing back against ugly sprawl as we see lots of that locally. I don't know why the building of large reservoirs ended after Carsington though, they would have been more sensible than HS2 ever was.
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