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The Cunliffe report into the state of England’s water sector fails at the first hurdle because it was forbidden from naming the real cause of the crisis: privatisation.
Everything else in the report flows from that silence.
Every reform, every regulatory shuffle, every local planning authority is built on the dangerous delusion that you can keep the profiteers in charge and still act in the public interest.
You can’t.
Feargal Sharkey is right again: this was a “once-in-a-generation chance to reset a broken and corrupted system… instead, the commission blinked”.
In fairness, Sir Jon Cunliffe’s Independent Water Commission report is detailed, considered and — in places — genuinely ambitious.
It recommends scrapping Ofwat, replacing it with a powerful new regulator, devolving planning, beefing up consumer protections, and improving environmental enforcement.
But it doesn’t just stop short of real change. It deliberately avoids it.
The unspoken truth: privatisation has failed
The Commission was explicitly banned by Environment Secretary Steve Reed from considering the public ownership of water.
That decision alone doomed the entire project.
You can’t regulate a system whose core business model depends on extracting profit from monopoly control of a basic human need.
You can’t “reset” a sector when the same executives, shareholders and offshore investors stay in charge.
And you certainly can’t rebuild trust when bills are rising, rivers are choking, and the only consequence for years of pollution is… another regulator.
This is the bottom line: if you won’t challenge private ownership, you’re not reforming the water system — you’re just tidying up the mess it made, free of charge.
What the report gets right (but can’t deliver)
Let’s be fair. Cunliffe does make some good — even necessary — recommendations:
-
Scrap Ofwat: The regulator that let water firms pile on £60 billion in debt, pay out £83 billion in dividends, and turn England’s rivers into open sewers is to be abolished. Good. Too late, but good.
-
Create a single integrated regulator: Combining Ofwat, the Environment Agency, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, and parts of Natural England is a big change. If implemented properly, it could end the blame-passing that has let firms pollute and profiteer with impunity.
-
Regional water planning authorities: Giving local voices — from councils to environmental experts — a role in deciding investment priorities is welcome. But without real power or democratic control, they risk becoming just another advisory board water firms can ignore.
-
Ombudsman and social tariffs: Strengthening consumer protection and standardising help for low-income households is long overdue. But it doesn’t fix the fact that the poorest are still being asked to foot the bill for decades of corporate neglect.
-
Environmental regulation upgrades: Better monitoring, tougher rules on sludge, abstraction and sewage spills, and new long-term water quality targets — all necessary. But again: who enforces them? And what happens when the fines are cheaper than the fixes?
What the report refuses to do
The most glaring omission is, of course, ownership. The report praises Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water) — a not-for-profit model — but refuses to recommend similar structures elsewhere.
Why? Because the government told it not to.
Instead, Cunliffe insists that “ownership structure doesn’t determine performance” — a line so clearly out of the privatisation playbook it might as well have come from Thames Water’s PR team.
Worse, the report:
-
Won’t hold anyone accountable. There’s no plan to claw back past dividends, prosecute executives, or force companies to clean up their own mess without public help.
-
Doesn’t end profiteering. The companies that caused this crisis are still in place. They’ll still own the infrastructure; still collect shareholder payouts; still raise bills. The public is still paying to fix what the private sector broke.
-
Won’t democratise water. There’s no public representation on company boards. No direct elections to new planning bodies. No mechanism for people to take back control of the water they already paid for.
This isn’t reform. It’s window dressing.
We pay. They profit. Still.
Let’s not forget the context.
This year, the government signed off £104 billion in water sector spending — almost entirely funded by billpayers. That’s not shareholder investment. It’s public money, funnelled through private hands, with minimal guarantees on delivery.
Thames Water — the poster child for water sector failure — is £23 billion in debt and circling collapse. It paid £37 billion to investors over the years while letting its pipes rot. And now it wants us to bail it out.
And the Cunliffe Report? It says we need a “clear, stable regulatory regime to support investor confidence.”
Investor confidence?
What about public confidence? What about the rivers full of human waste? What about the trust that was flushed away with every broken promise since 1989?
This is not a reset. It’s a distraction.
Steve Reed and Sir Jon Cunliffe want you to believe this is a historic moment; a root-and-branch reform; a new era for English water.
But here’s the truth: if the root cause of the rot is profit, and you leave that intact, then the rot remains.
Yes, Ofwat was weak.
Yes, the Environment Agency was underfunded.
Yes, planning was chaotic, and enforcement fragmented.
But the failure of regulation wasn’t an accident.
It was intended to let private companies strip value from public assets — and it worked.
That’s what this report refuses to admit.
And that’s why, despite its length and ambition, it is a failure. One could almost condemn it as a fraud.
You can’t fix this broken system without taking it out of private hands. That’s the reform we need — and it’s the reform they won’t even consider.
Feargal Sharkey put it best:
“This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset a broken and corrupted system. Instead, the commission blinked.”
He’s right. Again.
Until Labour finds the courage to say the words “public ownership”, no amount of reports, regulators, or regional boards will clean up the filth in our water — or the stench of failure hanging over the whole rotten system.
Share this post:
You can’t fix a rigged game: privatisation is the problem with our water, and Cunliffe was gagged from saying so
Share this post:
The Cunliffe report into the state of England’s water sector fails at the first hurdle because it was forbidden from naming the real cause of the crisis: privatisation.
Everything else in the report flows from that silence.
Every reform, every regulatory shuffle, every local planning authority is built on the dangerous delusion that you can keep the profiteers in charge and still act in the public interest.
You can’t.
Feargal Sharkey is right again: this was a “once-in-a-generation chance to reset a broken and corrupted system… instead, the commission blinked”.
In fairness, Sir Jon Cunliffe’s Independent Water Commission report is detailed, considered and — in places — genuinely ambitious.
It recommends scrapping Ofwat, replacing it with a powerful new regulator, devolving planning, beefing up consumer protections, and improving environmental enforcement.
But it doesn’t just stop short of real change. It deliberately avoids it.
The unspoken truth: privatisation has failed
The Commission was explicitly banned by Environment Secretary Steve Reed from considering the public ownership of water.
That decision alone doomed the entire project.
You can’t regulate a system whose core business model depends on extracting profit from monopoly control of a basic human need.
You can’t “reset” a sector when the same executives, shareholders and offshore investors stay in charge.
And you certainly can’t rebuild trust when bills are rising, rivers are choking, and the only consequence for years of pollution is… another regulator.
This is the bottom line: if you won’t challenge private ownership, you’re not reforming the water system — you’re just tidying up the mess it made, free of charge.
What the report gets right (but can’t deliver)
Let’s be fair. Cunliffe does make some good — even necessary — recommendations:
Scrap Ofwat: The regulator that let water firms pile on £60 billion in debt, pay out £83 billion in dividends, and turn England’s rivers into open sewers is to be abolished. Good. Too late, but good.
Create a single integrated regulator: Combining Ofwat, the Environment Agency, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, and parts of Natural England is a big change. If implemented properly, it could end the blame-passing that has let firms pollute and profiteer with impunity.
Regional water planning authorities: Giving local voices — from councils to environmental experts — a role in deciding investment priorities is welcome. But without real power or democratic control, they risk becoming just another advisory board water firms can ignore.
Ombudsman and social tariffs: Strengthening consumer protection and standardising help for low-income households is long overdue. But it doesn’t fix the fact that the poorest are still being asked to foot the bill for decades of corporate neglect.
Environmental regulation upgrades: Better monitoring, tougher rules on sludge, abstraction and sewage spills, and new long-term water quality targets — all necessary. But again: who enforces them? And what happens when the fines are cheaper than the fixes?
What the report refuses to do
The most glaring omission is, of course, ownership. The report praises Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water) — a not-for-profit model — but refuses to recommend similar structures elsewhere.
Why? Because the government told it not to.
Instead, Cunliffe insists that “ownership structure doesn’t determine performance” — a line so clearly out of the privatisation playbook it might as well have come from Thames Water’s PR team.
Worse, the report:
Won’t hold anyone accountable. There’s no plan to claw back past dividends, prosecute executives, or force companies to clean up their own mess without public help.
Doesn’t end profiteering. The companies that caused this crisis are still in place. They’ll still own the infrastructure; still collect shareholder payouts; still raise bills. The public is still paying to fix what the private sector broke.
Won’t democratise water. There’s no public representation on company boards. No direct elections to new planning bodies. No mechanism for people to take back control of the water they already paid for.
This isn’t reform. It’s window dressing.
We pay. They profit. Still.
Let’s not forget the context.
This year, the government signed off £104 billion in water sector spending — almost entirely funded by billpayers. That’s not shareholder investment. It’s public money, funnelled through private hands, with minimal guarantees on delivery.
Thames Water — the poster child for water sector failure — is £23 billion in debt and circling collapse. It paid £37 billion to investors over the years while letting its pipes rot. And now it wants us to bail it out.
And the Cunliffe Report? It says we need a “clear, stable regulatory regime to support investor confidence.”
Investor confidence?
What about public confidence? What about the rivers full of human waste? What about the trust that was flushed away with every broken promise since 1989?
This is not a reset. It’s a distraction.
Steve Reed and Sir Jon Cunliffe want you to believe this is a historic moment; a root-and-branch reform; a new era for English water.
But here’s the truth: if the root cause of the rot is profit, and you leave that intact, then the rot remains.
Yes, Ofwat was weak.
Yes, the Environment Agency was underfunded.
Yes, planning was chaotic, and enforcement fragmented.
But the failure of regulation wasn’t an accident.
It was intended to let private companies strip value from public assets — and it worked.
That’s what this report refuses to admit.
And that’s why, despite its length and ambition, it is a failure. One could almost condemn it as a fraud.
You can’t fix this broken system without taking it out of private hands. That’s the reform we need — and it’s the reform they won’t even consider.
Feargal Sharkey put it best:
He’s right. Again.
Until Labour finds the courage to say the words “public ownership”, no amount of reports, regulators, or regional boards will clean up the filth in our water — or the stench of failure hanging over the whole rotten system.
Share this post:
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