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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to mitigate risks to delivery of proposed water infrastructure upgrades arising from the financial instability of water companies.

Water companies’ delivery of infrastructure and improved water demand management to secure our water supplies is a top priority and will be supported by our reforms of the sector.

Defra work with regulators to closely monitor delivery through annual reviews of how companies against their targets. If they are not meeting their targets, they will receive a joint regulators letter setting out what they are failing on and when they must rectify these issues.

We have established a ministerial Water Delivery Taskforce to monitor and intervene in projects that are essential for growth.

This will also work alongside the regulators to hold the water companies to account to deliver their PR24 plans and scrutinising the costs of major projects in PR24.