What the minister said

The Environment Secretary has said households will “never again” face major water bill hikes as he announced an overhaul of regulation of the troubled sector.

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Steve Reed announced in a speech alongside the River Thames that regulator Ofwat would be scrapped, as part of measures to pull overlapping water regulation by four different bodies into one “single powerful” regulator responsible for the whole sector.

He made the announcement in response to an independent review by Sir Jon Cunliffe which called for the move, as one of 88 measures to tackle problems in the water sector.

The review was commissioned by the Government to answer public fury over pollution in rivers, lakes and seas, soaring bills, shareholder pay outs and bosses' bonuses.