Water White Paper

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Wednesday 21st January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

As the right hon. Member will know, there is already a big degree of devolution and we work closely with the Welsh Government. I saw the Deputy First Minister recently, and we discussed the water White Paper that we are publishing today, but also the Green Paper that the Welsh Government are bringing forward in the next few weeks. We are working in lockstep with them, aligning our approaches. We have to do that because, as she says, there are some real cross-border problems, and lots of people—on either side of the border—are affected.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

The chief executive of Yorkshire Water said her bonus may

“feel like it’s a lot of money”

and that she gets “paid what the board decide” she “ought to be paid”; £1.5 million through an offshore company feels like a lot of money because it is a lot of money. She was rewarded for failure, and as my constituency still deals with burst water pipes, it feels like her board decides she should be rewarded for failure. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the new water ombudsman will enforce the prevention of these hidden bonuses, and that infrastructure development will not just end up in higher bills for customers?

Independent Water Commission

Abtisam Mohamed Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

Diolch yn fawr. The commission is jointly set up by the UK Government and the Welsh Government, and it will report back to both. It will inform the actions that both Governments take subsequently, including looking at infrastructure and how we make catchment areas operate better, particularly when they cross borders, as so many do between England and Wales.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on the launch of the independent water commission. I know my constituents in Sheffield Central will welcome the review. They are seeing a 25% rise in their bills, but that does not make sense to them when shareholders continue to receive profits. Will the Secretary of State provide an assurance that as an outcome of the review there will be transparency, water companies will be held to account and we will reset the focus on consumers instead of company profit?

[Steve Reed]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Consumers must have a strong voice on the commission. They will gain that through consumer representation on the advisory group that will be working with Sir Jon, as the commissioner. She points to the eye-watering level of bill increases already proposed by Ofwat; alas, they are the price of Tory failure. The Tories allowed the water infrastructure to collapse to such an extent that it costs much more to fix it now than it would have cost had it been maintained properly through those 14 years. I cannot undo the damage they caused, but I can draw a line in the sand to ensure it never happens again.