Water White Paper

Yuan Yang Excerpts

Wednesday 21st January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

I am sorry, but I cannot get into the specifics of Thames Water at what is quite a sensitive moment. What I can say is that it is financially stable, but the Government are prepared for all eventualities, including a special administration regime if one were needed, but I cannot go into the detail of what is happening.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

Earlier this week, my team and I secured a £12,000 refund from Thames Water for one of my constituents whose pipes had been left to leak for almost half a year. Half a year ago, when I first met Thames Water bosses, I asked them to explain how they would be using higher bills to pay for better pipes and infrastructure in my constituency. It is now almost the end of the financial year and they have set out no explanation. What more can the Secretary of State do to ensure that my constituents are getting their money’s worth out of Thames Water?

[Emma Reynolds]

Before we legislate for the new regulator, we are encouraging and working with Ofwat to see what can be done to move to a more supervisory approach—similar to what we do in financial services, of which my hon. Friend is well aware—so that we can have a much more tailored and targeted approach. Different water companies are in different situations: some are performing better than others, and some are performing very poorly. I am really sorry to hear what she said. This Government have more than doubled the compensation that consumers will receive if there are outages and problems, which is to be welcomed.

Independent Water Commission

Yuan Yang Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I assume that is not my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (David Taylor), but another David Taylor. I am happy to ensure that my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) gets that meeting. Let me take this opportunity to thank her for being such a champion for her residents and her constituency. I have had the honour of visiting a couple of times, and I have seen how strongly she fights for clean water in her community.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

I very much welcome the Secretary of State’s focus on protecting water customers, because my constituents and I have seen our Thames Water bills go up dramatically. We want to know that those bill increases are going towards improving the infrastructure and customer service, as opposed to payouts to bosses that happened so much under the regulator’s watch. I have a meeting with Thames Water bosses in their Reading headquarters next week. Following that meeting, will the Secretary of State meet me and fellow Labour MPs working on the issue to discuss how we can better hold Thames Water to account on behalf of all our constituents?

[Steve Reed]

I am more than happy to make sure my hon. Friend gets a meeting with an appropriate Minister. I am sure she will be pleased to know that this Government have ringfenced customers’ money so that it can only be spent on the purposes it was intended for, including upgrading broken and leaking pipes, and will no longer be diverted to pay for bonuses and dividends, as used to happen under the previous Government.

Thames Water

Yuan Yang Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

The point is that there is a market-led solution on the table and I expect Thames Water to follow through on that.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

It is possible for an American private equity company to walk away from Thames Water, but my constituents cannot. When water company bosses fail, it is our residents who pay: in sewage discharged into rivers and in their crumbling pipes and drainage. I am therefore glad that the Government have taken bonuses off of failing bosses, but what more can the Government do to tilt incentives towards investment in our infrastructure so that my constituents get some relief?

[Steve Reed]

The problems that my hon. Friend points to are to do with a lack of investment throughout the entire period of the previous Government, so I was delighted that just before Christmas we secured a commitment to £104 billion of private sector investment. That is the single biggest investment in our water sector in its entire history and will be the second biggest private sector investment into any part of the economy under this Government. We are serious about clearing up the Conservatives’ sewage mess.