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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the (a) financial and (b) non-financial costs to the public between the privatised model and public ownership of the water industry over (i) the rest of PR24 and (ii) over the following 30 years.

The Government has no intention to nationalise the water industry, and therefore has no current plans to asses the financial or non-financial costs to the public between the privatised model and public ownership of the water industry.

The Independent Water Commission found no strong evidence between ownership model and performance. We are moving forward with fixing our water system, creating a powerful new water regulator to hold companies to account and prevent the abuses of the past.