Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Department has made of the adequacy of water infrastructure investment in each of the last five years.

There has been historic underinvestment in the water industry. Investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change.

We have already announced that we will create a powerful new regulator – abolishing Ofwat and bringing together the relevant functions from the other existing regulators (the DWI, Environment Agency and Natural England) into one new body. This will ensure better join-up between infrastructure planning, investment, and delivery.

These reforms will build on the step change in investment that will be delivered through Price Review 2024, which will see a £104 billion upgrade in the water sector. This investment will accelerate improvements in infrastructure to meet the challenges of the future, secure our water supply, and to meet new environmental requirements.