Why the Government’s idea of handing responsibility to mayors to oversee water companies is a cop out - Andrew Vine

Mayors like the four who work hard for their respective areas of Yorkshire have more than enough on their plates in driving economic regeneration and improving transport without trying to bring the water industry to book after years of dithering and failure by successive governments.

Greater devolved powers in regions such as Yorkshire are welcome, but in the case of water and the scandals that surround it, the clout that elected mayors can deliver isn’t enough. Water is not a regional problem, but a national one.

Shuffling off responsibility to mayors would potentially allow the government to sidestep accountability, which is not good enough.

Given the scale and profitability of companies such as Yorkshire Water, which has such a dismal record of pollution, the only proper course in trying to make the industry fit for purpose is for it to be a responsibility and priority for central government.

That’s the way matters appeared to be going as Andy Burnham prepared to take office as Prime Minister.

He talked tough about renationalisation of water, but his rhetoric on the subject has rapidly become very muted indeed in the face of the unpalatable fact that the companies hold all the financial cards.

The monstrous costs of taking the industry back into public ownership are simply beyond Britain's means, and any attempt to do so would inevitably become bogged down in ruinously expensive litigation with the foreign investors which overwhelmingly are its ultimate owners.

That the government cannot realistically take back control has been illustrated by the protracted negotiations to secure new private investment in Thames Water, teetering on the brink of insolvency.

Without saying so explicitly, ministers have gone to great lengths to avoid even temporary nationalisation of Britain’s biggest water company because the bill would be unaffordable.

The idea of creating nine new regional bodies to oversee water was a key recommendation of Sir John Cunliffe's Independent Water Commission published in June last year. They would be given powers to oversee elements of companies’ spending and hold bosses to account over bills and sewage discharges.

But there is nothing – at least so far – in the government’s vague idea to put mayors at the head of these regional bodies about any sanctions they would have on failing water companies.

And without real powers to impose financial penalties on them, it is hard to see how mayors could compel the likes of Yorkshire Water to clean up their act, or divert more of their profits into improving services rather than enriching investors.

Our county’s mayors have rightly been unsparing in their criticism of Yorkshire Water. In doing so, they have reflected the views of the public, which has been outraged at sewage spills that grew worse even as handsome salaries and bonuses were paid to water bosses, and relentlessly rising bills to make good longstanding deficiencies in investment.

Like the public, the mayors are undoubtedly disgusted at human waste floating in our rivers and families being told they should not go paddling or swimming from Yorkshire’s beaches during the school holidays.

Their criticism is of immense importance in bringing pressure to bear on Yorkshire Water, and they will be doing the county a service by maintaining it.

The government should be backing up the mayors by taking decisive action against the industry at a national level, to demonstrate just how unacceptable the country finds the management of our water supplies.

The depth of dissatisfaction is shown by the record number of complaints made by households to the Consumer Council for Water, which has risen by a shocking 84 per cent in a year.

An underpowered regional approach to a problem of this magnitude will not do. All it is likely to achieve is to let water companies off the hook yet again, as they have been so often in the past.

Only the full weight of government regulation will finally bring an end to the complacency and greed that has characterised this industry for far too long.