Campaigners call on ministers to go beyond the Cunliffe recommendations

Campaigners River Action and Surfers Against Sewage have urged the Government to go beyond the Cunliffe Review recommendations in its follow-up Autumn White Paper, after concluding the Commission “ducks the bold changes needed to end sewage pollution”.

The groups measured the recommendations against “five core principles for real reform” and reported the following ratings: 

• Operating for public benefit – poor

• Democratic decision-making – partial

• Protecting public and environmental health – partial

• Tough, independent regulators – poor

• Transparency – partial.

  
  

The campaigners concluded: “The Water Commission’s report was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset a failing system. Instead, it tinkers at the edges, leaving the profit-driven model intact and communities exposed to sewage, debt, and declining water quality.

Government must now go further. The upcoming White Paper must:

• Restructure water companies to deliver public benefit, not private profit.

• Embed democratic oversight at local and regional levels.

• Put public and environmental health at the heart of water law and regulation.

• Create a tough, well-funded regulator with the power to act.

• End operator self-monitoring and deliver full transparency.

Anything less will leave us trapped in the cycle of pollution, public anger, and political failure.”