Developed by bankers and financiers, the white paper benefits private equity at the expense of the environment and the public, giving the public no say over the future of water and letting illegally polluting water companies off the hook.

Whilst some of the intent will draw across the board support e.g pre-pipe solutions such as sustainable drainage and rainwater management, and measures to support water efficiency (mandatory efficiency labelling).  The government’s refusal to address the fundamental problem of failed privatisation and provide solutions to the cause of the terrible state of pollution in this country.  These partial changes act as a cover for the failure to deliver the ‘once in a lifetime’ radical reform needed to secure water security, clean up our water ways and deliver a sustainable and affordable water system.  The elephant in the room is the failed 30-year experiment of privatisation.

Conclusion. This White Paper is a private equity dream, tying us for the long term to a failed water industry, with 35% of our bills going to shareholders, £22bn in 2025-30.

Right now, we need:

1. Defra, EA and Ofwat to enforce the law as it stands, and prosecute criminal offences, stopping illegal pollution and removing licenses from illegal water companies
2. Take failing water companies into special administration, turn them around into an ownership structure that delivers outcomes and public value for money.
3. A policy of the ‘Polluter Pays’ so the public is not cross-subsiding polluting companies and businesses.

Whilst putting in place these obvious steps the government should:

1. Develop a Strategy for water conservation, protection and efficiency, that sets the direction to ensure we have water now and, in the future, while protecting our rivers, lakes and seas.
2. Undertake a feasibility study that sets out all the delivery options and costs (private, public, mutual ownership) and choose the one that best fits the strategic direction.
3. Once the ownership model is determined the government can then design a regulator fit for purpose.

This sticking plaster white paper is the worst of all worlds, appeasing greedy shareholders, weakening regulatory standards and independence, letting water companies off the hook, while leaving the public to pay the price.

1. Ilkley Clean River Group. Government White Paper – greenwashing its failure to address the elephant in the room
2. Windrush Against Sewage Pollution. New Vision for Water – a mirage or worse?
3. Wilder Wenhaston. The Politics of Pollution

The Future of Enforcement is costing and will cost the public.

The Water Reform White Paper continues to syphon money off to private equity, inflating the cost of fixing our water system whilst weakening regulation under the cloak of prevention. Dressed up as a once in a lifetime solution, the White Paper masks the fact that it shackles the public to failed privatised water companies with long term increases in bills, increasing numbers of households who can’t pay, and with no end in sight to fixing our broken infrastructure and pollution for profit.