Priorities for Water Reform

Debated on 19 June 2025

Henry Tufnell MP:

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) for the work that we did together on this report in the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

As she will know, I represent a Welsh seat in Mid and South Pembrokeshire. Welsh Water’s not-for-profit model avoids dividends and maintains a low gearing level of 60.4%, but that has not stopped it from having more spills and longer spill durations than those in England.

On top of that, there is poor performance on enforcement and we have an asset renewal rate of 0.09% from 2020 to 2025.

Does my hon. Friend agree that in terms of the radical need for renewal to regain public trust and confidence in the sector, this goes far beyond simply changing ownership models?

Change must be right across the piece.

Helena Dollimore MP:

Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend for his work on the Committee, and for his questioning of the boss of Welsh Water about many of these issues.

He is right that at the moment all the indicators are going in the wrong direction on debt gearing and on the structures these companies use, all while sewage dumping incidents are, too often, increasing.

In the report, we have called for limits on debt gearing levels, better oversight of the complex business structures that even the water bosses in front of our Committee did not seem to understand and were not able to explain, and greater scrutiny of dividend policies.