During the State Opening of Parliament yesterday (Wednesday 17 July), the King set out the government’s priorities for the coming months.

The speech unveiled over 35 bills and draft bills which will support delivery of the Government’s first steps and missions.

It included a new Water (Special Measures) Bill to strengthen regulation, give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met and increase accountability for water executives. More detail on the Bill will be set out in due course.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed said:   

We will never look the other way while water companies pump record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

This Bill delivers on our manifesto commitment to put water companies under tough special measures and begin the work of cleaning up our waterways.

As an immediate step, this government will strengthen regulation to reverse the tide on the unacceptable destruction of our waterways, ensuring water companies deliver for customers and the environment and attract private-sector investment to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure.

Change will take time. The Government will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform our water industry and restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.

The Bill follows new measures set out by the Secretary of State in his first week to cut sewage dumping and attract investment to upgrade infrastructure:

• Funding for vital infrastructure investment will be ringfenced so that it is only spent on upgrades benefiting customers and the environment, and when it goes unspent it is returned to customers
• Water companies will place customers and the environment at the heart of their objectives in their company rules
• Proposals to double compensation for households and businesses when basic water services are affected, for example, if a ‘boil water notice’ is implemented
• Customers will be able to hold water company bosses to account through new customer panels with powers to summon board members for questioning to make sure they are meeting customer obligations

You can read more about the King’s Speech and how it works on Gov.uk.