We are asking all our members to get involved in this important consultation about the implementation of the new Water (Special Measures) Act. The Act was passed into law on 24 February 2025, but further consultations are being held on how the details in the Act are to be implemented.
Although the new Act has been welcomed, many campaigning bodies remain concerned about these details.
Read on to learn more and to take action.
An important consultation on the new Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 to clean up our waterways, is now open for comment.
This first consultation was released on the 25 March 2025, and the deadline for responses is 29 April 2025. The consultation focuses on one small part of the new powers handed to OFWAT, focusing on water company executives’ pay. You can read more about the consultation and respond here.
What is the new Act all about?
The Water (Special Measures) Act was passed into law on 24 February 2025. The Act aims to make water companies more accountable for their actions, and toughens up the measures used to hold them accountable.
When the new Act was passed, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Steve Reed released a statement assuring “ …water company bosses will be held accountable” for their role in polluting Britain’s waterways.
The Act gives OFWAT powers to set rules on remuneration of water company staff and company governance. These powers require:
- water companies to stop the payment of performance related pay to directors and chief executives where performance fails to meet specified standards;
- water companies to test whether individuals in senior roles meet standards of ‘fitness and propriety’; and
- companies must ensure customers are represented in company decision-making.
The Act will give the courts the power to imprison water company executives who obstruct OFWAT investigations. It will also lower the burden of proof in investigations, from criminal (at present) to civil.
It also contains provisions to force water companies to provide better “real time” data on storm overflows, and companies will be required to produce Pollution Incident Reduction Plans, and Drainage and Sewerage Plans.
All these details can be found on the government web site here.
What are the remaining concerns?
What the government information does not cover, is what criteria will be applied to all these measures. A lot seems to be dependent on secondary legislation coming down the road, and OFWAT developing the criteria for many of the measures.
Also, imprisonment applies only to obstructing an OFWAT investigation, not committing the acts of pollution themselves. It also fails to outline how the balance will be struck between water companies meeting environmental targets and maintaining financial viability.
For this approach to lead to meaningful improvement in water quality, OFWAT will have to start being a lot tougher on water companies than it has so far shown itself willing to be.
The act has not been met with enthusiasm by the various campaigning groups trying to stop sewage being dumped into our waterways. They also point to the fact the government has not used the powers it already had. As Fergal Sharkey has stated to the Independent newspaper, “for 20 years” existing laws have allowed company directors to receive “unlimited fines” for “that kind of environmental vandalism”. But “the regulatory system is dysfunctional“. Fergal Sharkey goes on to claim “I cannot find a single example of any company director ever prosecuted, ever being fined a penny”.
As with any legislation, the crucial point is that it is used and enforced.
If any fine were ever to be issued, would the costs be simply added to our water bills – bills that have already, this year, been increased by around 25%? Meanwhile water companies are using regulations that permit the release of untreated sewage in exceptional circumstances to regularly dump it in our local waterways.
Wildlife and Countryside Link is a campaigning group working to protect the natural world (you can read more about the group here). Their Blueprint for Water is a coalition of over 20 organisations aiming to restore the ecology of the UK’s rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands by seeking improvements to water policy at an England level.
They were concerned during the drafting of the bill, that the measures that water company performance would be judged by were not clearly defined. And they remain deeply concerned about this process.
Take Action – Let your political representative know your concerns
We can sometimes feel like very small voices against the big wheels of government and industry. But together we can make a difference.
The Rivers Trust is just one organisation lobbying government to use its strongest powers to improve the quality of our waterways. You can find out more about their latest calls to action here, along with email templates and other useful tools to lobby your MP and government departments.
