King’s Speech: Clean Water Bill to merge existing regulators

Gordon McCreath and Robbie Owen were commenting as major changes to the way England’s water sector is regulated were announced in parliament yesterday.

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The measures, announced in the King’s Speech outlining the government’s legislative priorities for the year ahead, will see the introduction of the Clean Water Bill – a new legislative and regulatory framework that seeks to end England’s “complex and fragmented” privatised water sector.

The bill will establish a new, independent and integrated water regulator that brings together the relevant functions of Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England into one single regulatory body.

Under the proposals, a new Water Ombudsman will be created to ensure complaints from the public are taken seriously and resolved quickly, and to ensure consumers are better protected. The regulator will also be empowered to enforce security, including “no-notice inspections” to ensure realistic testing of security measures.

The announcement follows ambitious plans unveiled in a white paper at the start of this year to overhaul the water industry regulatory system following last year’s report by Sir John Cunliffe that highlighted the urgent need for reform across the water industry. The white paper also confirmed plans to publish a transition plan for the water industry later in 2026 that will “lead the water sector through transformative reforms”

The government said the bill will also enable “pre-pipe solutions” including sustainable drainage systems to reduce spills and consolidate and strengthen agricultural pollution rules.

This bill is widely expected to restore public trust and strengthen consumer protection across the country's water industry by ensuring customers are able to identify leaks and reduce water wastage more quickly, while also getting better value from their water bills.

The government said it also plans to create a long-term planning framework by consolidating existing water industry planning into two core planning frameworks and exploring establishing national water targets. This, it said, would provide companies, investors and regulators with clear five, 10, and 25-year targets, which will streamline and align planning and reporting, thereby reducing “unnecessary administrative burden” on all industry stakeholders.

McCreath, a water industry expert with Pinsent Masons, said: “The background notes on the bill confirm much of what was already expected coming out of the Cunliffe Report and the Water White Paper.”

However, he stressed that successful reform of the industry would hinge on the ‘how’ not the ‘what’. “The bill will only take us so far on that front,” he added. “The Transition Plan on water reform expected later this year will be the crucial document to explore how the reforms can be implemented effectively and in a way that does not obstruct or delay the investment and project delivery that the industry so badly needs.”

Commenting on the bill, Owen, an infrastructure planning expert with Pinsent Masons, said: “As the government moves toward a single, more interventionist regulator and tighter oversight of the sector, the priority must be creating a clear, integrated and streamlined framework with adequate funding and planning certainty. This is so that businesses can invest for the long term at pace and deliver the next generation of water infrastructure the UK needs to cope with climate change and to enable growth.”

The government said the new measures would also provide clarity for investors to support much-needed long-term upgrades to the critical infrastructure and help support the chancellor’s Regulation Action Plan by “ensuring the water regulator helps unlock growth rather than hold it back”.

To achieve this, Owen said it was critical that the regulation deployed is “proportionate and outcomes-focussed and operates on the basis of constrained discretion”.

The bill will apply to England and Wales, but some measures are also expected to apply to Scotland.