The new ‘Water White Paper’ fails to deliver the reform required to fix Britain’s broken water industry, the Angling Trust and Fish Legal have warned.
The newly-published report advocates the abolition of Ofwat – the water services regulation authority which has long been seen as a big part of the problem.
Although the Trust welcome this move, they and Fish Legal are concerned that structural reshuffling alone will not clean up our beleaguered waterways.
“While we recognise the need for the wholesale reform of the current shambolic system of water industry regulation, simply identifying problems that are already painfully obvious from the condition of our rivers and watercourses is a long way from taking meaningful action to fix them,” said Martin Salter, Head of Policy at the Trust.
“The abolition of Ofwat and creation of a new ‘super- regulator’, including a Chief Engineer’s Office and an MOT-style assessment of water company assets, is welcomed, and will identify problems at an earlier stage.
“But this White Paper is silent on what will be done to solve them. The government needs to flesh out how it will deliver a water sector that’s fit for purpose and not a menace to fish, fishing and wildlife.”
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