Campaigners declare no confidence in the Independent Water Commission

Clean water campaigners have declared no confidence in the Independent Water Commission as it stands.

In a letter to chair Sir Jon Cunliffe penned by Ash Smith, chair of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, and co-signed by Save Windermere, Ilkley Clean River Group, SOS Whitstable, Henley Mermaids, the Sewage Campaign Network and Feargal Sharkey, the activists urged Sir Jon to “negotiate a truly independent review of the entire sector in view, as originally promised, with broad terms of reference free of involvement by any of the compromised parties, other than as respondents and witnesses”.

Should that not be possible: “We respectfully request that you step down on moral and ethical grounds as this commission has been shown to have been compromised by factors outside of your control.”

The signatories pointed out that they supported the idea of an independent inquiry and have engaged with previous scrutiny in Parliament. But they said they cannot support the current review, chiefly because of Defra’s conduct. Issues cited included: narrowing the initial broad scope planned for the review to focus mainly on regulation once investors flagged this up as a blocker to investment; and Defra’s “poor reputation in respect of misrepresenting important facts to the public [the letter cited in example presenting the £104bn of AMP8 customer investment as private sector investment] and directing policy and activities that have made water industry pollution profitable.”

The campaigners highlighted two key concerns to Sir Jon: 

“1. The tight direction of your Terms of Reference and the disingenuous (on the part of the authors) exclusion of privatisation, based on falsehoods, render this a far from independent review. 

“2. The engagement of Defra (without casting doubt on individual staff members) which is heavily implicated in the failure of regulation, as the secretariat for your commission, is wholly inappropriate.”

The letter added: “We hereby alert you to the compromised nature of the Water Commission and the risk to your own reputation as the commission delivers its recommendations with one arm tied behind its back and its eyes carefully averted from the truth about the role of privatised water in the overall failure which is likely, therefore, to continue.”