Committees

South West Water, Yorkshire Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent to appear before Committee next week 

20 February 2025

The EFRA Committee continues its ‘reforming the water sector’ inquiry next week, with two evidence sessions on the mornings of 25 and 26 February. 

At 10am on Tuesday 25 February, MPs will question the leadership of South West Water, before questioning Yorkshire Water at 11am. 

At 9.30am on Wednesday 26 February, the Committee will start by questioning the leadership of United Utilities, before moving on to questioning Severn Trent at 10.30am. 

Both sessions will be an opportunity for MPs to quiz the companies on their individual financial performance, environmental performance, service delivery and consumer satisfaction.  

The Committee will investigate water companies’ finances including their pay-out of dividends and executive bonuses.  

MPs are likely to ask the water bosses about major recent concerns including incidents of outbreaks of contamination, such as the cryptosporidium outbreak in Devon last year, and continuing high levels of raw sewage being discharged into rivers and lakes, such as have occurred at Lake Windermere, the River Wharfe, and the River Trent. 

Witnesses  

Tuesday 25 February  

At 10am: 

  • Susan Davy, CEO, Pennon Group and South West Water 

At 11am:  

  • Nicola Shaw, CEO, Yorkshire Water 
  • Paul Inman, CFO, Yorkshire Water 

Wednesday 26 February  

At 9.30am: 

  • Louise Beardmore, CEO, United Utilities 
  • Phil Aspin, CFO, United Utilities 

At 10.30am:

  • Liv Garfield, CEO, Severn Trent  

Chair Comment:

Chair of the EFRA Committee, Alistair Carmichael MP, said: 

“The water industry has attracted investment from financial institutions looking for low risk and high reward returns, without sufficiently prioritising the delivery of services to the public. 

“There is huge public concern about the performance of water companies, which has only been made worse by high profile incidents such as water outages, sewage pollution and outbreaks of contamination in domestic water supplies. 

“Our inquiry is investigating the deep-rooted problems underlying the industry, and we are now calling in major water companies to scrutinise their individual performance and hold them accountable for their provision of water services to the public.” 

Further information

Image: Pixabay