Independent Water Commission

Lord Sikka Excerpts

Monday 12th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

Absolutely. One of the key parts of Sir Jon Cunliffe’s report is around the importance of setting a strategic direction for the industry, and one of the things that are set out there is the importance of that ministerial and strategic direction. I imagine that the development of that will of course involve both Houses of Parliament. However, it is really important to understand that, in other areas of accountability, one of the important things that Sir Jon recommended was ending the years of water companies marking their own homework by introducing open monitoring. It is important that we see accountability and transparency across the piece.

[Lord Sikka (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister has once again mentioned the £100 billion possible cost of bringing water into public ownership. That is a bogus number, and no Minister has publicly engaged in any debate about it. The Government had a chance to silence critics by asking the Water Commission to consider public ownership as an option and independently calculate its cost. Why did the Government not ask the Water Commission to do that?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

At the risk of repeating myself, we were very clear as a Government that we had no intention of nationalising the water sector. The £100 billion figure is not bogus, because it is based on the regulated capital value of the water sector. My noble friend has to remember that it is not just the capitalised value of the companies as they currently exist but the equity and the debt that you would be bringing on to the books if you were to nationalise. Defra has provided a comprehensive note on its website that explains that calculation; I gently suggest to my noble friend that he has a look at that to understand the workings.