Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the independent review into England and Wales' water sector

The water sector for England and Wales is set to undergo a significant overhaul following the release of a new report.

The Independent Water Commission sets out 88 recommendations to get the industry back into shape after years of notable controversies.  

UK correspondent Gavin Grey unpacks the findings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With me right now we have Gavin Gray, UK correspondent.
Hey Gevin hither have that right? What are the issues
that we're found in the water sector.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, big report are really perhaps the biggest changes being
recommended in this independent report since the water industries here
were privatized thirty odd years ago. And this is all
to the four because dividends for the water companies have
been high. Bonuses for the big bosses have been massive.
In one case, a water company boss is going to
walk away this week with something like three million New

(00:31):
Zealand dollars worth in bonuses, long term incentive plans and salary.
And yet we have more sewage being pumped into our
waters than ever before. Often when there is a sudden
deluge of rain, the pipes can't cope and then to
make sure there's no overflow, the waste is then pumped
into rivers and of course that's deeply unpleasant and unenvironmentally friendly.

(00:53):
So this new report, published just an hour and a
half ago, has eighty eight recommendations in it. They've said basically,
the water regulator off what is not working. It is
just simply not doing its job to keep an eye
on the water companies so the author recommends that those
are scrapped with a single integrated water regulator in England
and Wales instead of the three that we currently have

(01:16):
looking at different parts of the water industry. There should
be new regional water system planning authorities in England and
one in Wales. Part of the problem for drinking water, incidentally,
is we haven't built a reservoir in this country for
thirty five to forty years, and that's a long time
with the population increasing. And one big thing he's demanding

(01:38):
now that water meters be made mandatory. In other words,
not just new homes, not just homes that are easy
to access, you know, and housing estates, but all homes
across the UK, however isolated, they are to have a
water meter. Plenty of feedback on all of this report,
and this is likely to rumble on for some time.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Kevin, is it now the case said? Whoever was left
behind in Afghanistan gets no compo.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That is pretty much what they're now saying. What a
terrible week where one leak of information from an unnamed
ministry defense official may end up costing more than two
billion New Zealand dollars in compensation and to rectify. But
what we now loan is that as law as well
as people in Afghanistan who'd helped British forces during the

(02:26):
war there in Afghanistan have helped them with translating and
so forth. While some have been brought to the UK,
we now know that there are others who won't, and
those whose personal details were leaked but were not evacuated
are being told they will not receive any compensation. And
it's that word compensation, as you can imagine, he that
has really boosted that massive bill that the government may

(02:49):
now be facing, because of course there are those who
have come to the UK whose families are still in
Afghanistan they are seeking compensation. The list also included one
hundred at least one hundred people who were in the
security services or sas their information was leaked. Well that's
obviously the most sensitive data here, but there are those

(03:12):
who are left behind as well, who's now information is leaked,
who are they fear going to be targeted by the Taliban.
So there are some case laws being bought here, with
one large lawsuit being prepared by a company with more
than one thousand Afghan clans. So yes, you can bet
your life the lawyers are all over this trying to
get these some large settlements from the government.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Kevin, thanks very much, Enjoy your day and we'll talk
to you again in a couple of days.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
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