Water firms including embattled giant Thames Water will learn on Thursday how much they will be able to hike bills as Ofwat releases its ruling on the industry’s future spending plans. The regulator will publish a draft decision at 7am on its price review, setting out how far England’s suppliers can raise consumer bills over the next five years and how much they can spend on updating their ageing infrastructure. Later the same day Environment Secretary Steve Reed is to meet all the water companies in England and Wales to discuss reforms aimed at stopping the “unacceptable destruction of our waterways”.
Among the reforms the Environment Secretary is set to announce on Thursday is ensuring water infrastructure funding is ringfenced and can only be spent on upgrades, as well as a change of company rules to ensure customers are at the heart of the companies’ objectives. Consumers will also be given the power to summon bosses to meetings through new customer panels which are designed to hold firms to account while Labour also wants to more than double compensation when water companies fail to meet key standards. The Environment Secretary has promised to “never look the other way while water companies pump sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas”.
Mr Reed added: “This unacceptable destruction of our waterways should never have been allowed, but change has now begun so it can never happen again. “Today I have announced significant steps to clean up the water industr.
