who speaks for water?

Start with Water UK, the industry’s main trade body.

It represents water companies in discussions with government, regulators, policymakers and the media on issues such as sewage discharges, environmental performance, infrastructure investment and customer bills.

Its structure is worth noting.

The Water UK board is largely made up of senior executives from the same water companies it represents. Those companies also fund Water UK through membership fees.

The organisation is chaired by Ruth Kelly, a former UK Cabinet minister who took on the role in 2023.

At the same time, water companies also fund elements of their own regulation.

They pay charges to the Environment Agency (including environmental permit fees, abstraction licence charges and regulatory subsistence fees) which support monitoring and enforcement of activities such as sewage discharges.

Government figures indicate around £149 million per year will be raised from water companies for water-company regulation from 2025–26.

Look at the structure:

Water companies
→ fund the industry body (Water UK)
→ sit on its board
→ help inform the sector’s collective voice to government and regulators
Water companies
→ pay regulatory charges
→ fund parts of the system that regulates them.

In many sectors this reflects a 'polluter pays' regulatory model.

But with the water industry under intense scrutiny over sewage pollution, environmental performance and rising bills, it raises an important question:
How transparent should these relationships be in sectors as essential as water?