Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will make an assessment of alternative governance for water utilities, including public ownership and mutual structures.

There are several different ownership models in the companies providing water in the United Kingdom.

Where a company requests to transition to a new ownership model, we have committed in the White Paper that the regulator will develop a transparent process to assess whether the change should go ahead and ensure customer interests are properly reflected in the decision.