Rivers and sewage

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

—or, indeed, it just becomes another layer of management. The recommendations in the Independent Water Commission report that the UK Government and the Welsh Government have committed to implementing has a taxonomy for how that sort of supervisory regulation works in practice, which is based on the…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

I think it's crucial that economic regulation stays independent of influence, so the right decisions are made. There is a danger, as we move towards something that looks closer to performance management, that we become too sympathetic to what we're being told—

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Gareth BeerReform

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Thanks for coming down. Is Ofwat in danger—it might be a good thing or a bad thing—of actually running the management of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, as a sort of mission creep, if you like? I've got another question as well.

Tagged for: “Ofwat”, “Dŵr Cymru”, “Welsh Water”Official Record

Vikki HowellsLabour

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Diolch. I've got Gareth and Andrew, and if there's time, we'll go back to John as well and hope to get all the questions in before we close at 10:30. Gareth.

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Our experience is that turnaround of companies takes time. I think it's impossible to guarantee at the end of the second year that everything's fixed, but we are doing everything that we can to ensure that there is progress and improvement. You will know, from having spoken to the company itself…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Niamh SalkeldPlaid

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Thank you, Chair. So, this time next year, will we see Dŵr Cymru's figures improve from this new enforcement that you've put in place?

Tagged for: “Dŵr Cymru”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…but also with Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, to ensure that it delivers on its promises. What's also the case is that we have set it stretching requirements on performance and put a financial regime in place to strongly…

Tagged for: “Dŵr Cymru”, “Welsh Water”, “water companies”Official Record

Niamh SalkeldPlaid

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…then? Because obviously that's 2032, is it? Am I right in thinking that's the year that, obviously, Ofwat’s going to be—I don't know if ‘dismantled’ is the right word, but we've got the new regulator set up. Obviously, there are quite a few years until then, so from that report that highlighted all…

Tagged for: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…in the final report of the Independent Water Commission—quite painfully, as I described it before—that Ofwat's part of a system that was too fragmented, and as an economic regulator, we were at too great an arm's length. So, going a long way back to 2012, there was a UK Government report on economic…

Tagged for: “Ofwat”, “Dŵr Cymru”Official Record

Niamh SalkeldPlaid

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Diolch. I'm sorry, I'm going back a couple of steps again. It's again to do with the Dŵr Cymru service. I'm listening to the responses that you guys have given and I'm just thinking of my constituents. Where I live in Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni, if they heard the responses that we're getting…

Tagged for: “Dŵr Cymru”, “water quality”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

I imagine we'd be consulted. I described earlier the pipeline of 30 major projects worth £50 billion over the next 15 to 25 years. A number of those are water desalination and water reuse. And those proposals that were put to us I think had one eye on using non-potable water, for example, for data…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Vikki HowellsLabour

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

And just quickly on that, there's quite an interesting emerging discussion about whether data centres should be using potable or non-potable water. Is that something, as a regulator, that you'd be involved in discussions with the Welsh Government on?

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record