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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report by Ofwat entitled Water Company Performance Report 2021-22, published in December 2022, whether her Department plans to take steps to ensure that underspend is invested by water companies into reducing sewage discharges.

Ofwat’s findings that water companies are not spending investment assigned to make service improvements is completely unacceptable. Overall, water companies have only spent 61% of their forecasted wastewater enhancement cost allowance during 2020-22, which has resulted in delaying crucial wastewater infrastructure to improve water resilience and the environment.

Yorkshire Water and South West Water have only spent 20% and 39% of their allowance, respectively. The SoS and I met with the CEOs of these two companies in December to discuss their performance.

I am aware that the COVID pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have impacted on supply chains, but other water companies are exceeding their spend and I expect all water companies to urgently get their spending back on track and implement the upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure they have been funded to deliver and that customers rightly expect. I will continue to meet with the CEOs of underperforming companies to monitor their progress.

Ofwat, as the economic regulator for the water industry, has been clear that where these expectations are not met and companies are failing to comply with their obligations, they will take action, including enforcement action where warranted.