In response to Ofwat’s verdict on water bills and Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s intervention, Dr Doug Parr, Policy Director for Greenpeace UK, said :

“While Ofwat still seem to be trying to strike a balance between cooperating with blackmail and not triggering significant change, it’s encouraging to see the government stepping into the fray and acknowledging that political choices need making as well as the need to hold water companies to account. It’s now glaringly obvious that these water firms will continue to demand dividends and bonuses for continuing to not do their job for as long as they are allowed to do so. The regulator can’t solve this without full government backing for a more interventionist approach, and so while Labour are right to promise a clampdown on profiteering, if they want to deliver real change in the sector and rein in serial polluters, they need to go further. We need tougher legal targets to eliminate sewage spills in sensitive areas by 2030, a full ban on shareholder dividends and bonuses, the government taking a share in the companies to drive investment in infrastructure and a social tariff to shield low-income households from the bill hikes that may be needed to drag this rogue industry into the 21st century.”