Customers risk weaker independent oversight after freedom of information disclosures revealed the Consumer Council for Water established an industry advisory group to gather ideas and feedback from water companies on how new customer-led accountability panels should operate.
The panels are central to a government promise announced last year to give people a greater say over local water services and clearer routes to redress. Ministers have said the reforms include replacing Ofwat with a regulator that will have stronger supervisory powers, creating an independent water ombudsman, and installing company-based experts to monitor compliance and environmental performance. A new water bill is due to be introduced to parliament to put those changes into law.
Campaigners said inviting the firms that will be judged to help shape the panels creates a conflict of interest and could undermine customers’ ability to hold companies to account. Feargal Sharkey, a long-standing water campaigner, called the approach “a stitch-up” and said, “If water companies are involved in setting this up customers will not get any redress. The people who are important in all of this are the customers who have been extorted by these companies. The CCW is asking the extorters what should be happening to the victims, this is an outrage and a scandal.” He added, “It sounds like this scheme will be equally inept and dysfunctional.”
The concern comes as the Consumer Council for Water recorded 80% more complaints in 2025-26 than in the previous year, while its resources were not increased. Campaigners point to ongoing service failures across England and Wales, including repeated supply interruptions in parts of the south-east, widespread hosepipe bans, continuing sewage discharges, and rising bills. The government also faces pressure over the financial state of Thames Water and whether it should be brought into public control, a step officials have delayed because of creditor issues and the Treasury’s potential costs.
A CCW spokesperson defended its engagement with industry as practical, saying it had not asked companies how they wanted to be held to account but had involved firms to work out arrangements that would allow them to participate effectively in panels, for example by permitting chief executives to attend sessions and by ensuring action plans were in place. A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said ministers recognised the industry had not been operating in the public interest and that the planned reforms, including an independent ombudsman, would give the public more control and strengthen complaint handling.
Ministers will publish the water bill and set out the detailed design of the accountability panels and the wider regulatory architecture. The FOI disclosures mean scrutiny of who shaped those arrangements is likely to intensify as the proposals move through parliament.
