Regulating the water industry: swimming against the tide or going through the motions?

Since the privatization of Britain's water and sewerage industry in 1989, customers have been charged higher prices to cover the cost of maintaining and enhancing a vast and aging infrastructure. Yet the industry has not ploughed its increased revenues back into the network with the result that the services it provides have deteriorated. Some areas of the country may now have insufficient water in the event of drought, while sewers in several places are likely to crack, leak and collapse. This has happened despite government assurances that standards and investment would be ensured through regulation. Any failure of the public water supply system is not an aberration due to some rogue company or unusual weather conditions: it is systemic.