The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee (EFRA) is shortly due to question Sir Jon Cunliffe, Chair of the Independent Water Commission in an evidence session starting at 10am this morning.

Yesterday the cross-party committee published its ‘Priorities for water sector reform’ report, which follows the MPs’ evidence sessions with the leadership of ten of England and Wales' major water and sewerage companies in 2025. The highly critical report is warning that a failing water sector in which “water companies increasingly look like financial institutions rather than businesses servicing monopolised critical infrastructure” is in need of “root and branch reform”.

The Committee’s report says the water sector “has completely lost sight of its purpose and increasingly operates as a network of financial services businesses rather than custodians of a public good”. MPs say the sector is in need of “root and branch reform” and call for “a major refresh of the incentives and drivers” and “much more regulated management of financial incentives for senior executives”.

The report also calls for safeguards “to prevent egregious dividend payments” and says that examples of excessive dividends contrasted with poor performance, are “symptomatic of a culture of profiteering over duties to regulators and customers”. MPs say that dividends should correlate to a company’s performance.

The evidence session will be an opportunity for MPs to question Sir Jon Cunliffe on his assessment of the conclusions and recommendations made in their report, and probe into his own report, the interim report of the Water Commission, published two weeks ago.

The Committee will seek to understand how the interim conclusions of the Commission were drawn and also ask how limited Sir Jon Cunliffe was by the fact that nationalisation of the water industry was out of scope of the Commission.

MPs on the Committee will question Sir Jon on the five main problem areas within the water sector which the Water Commission identified in its 3 June report and will probe into the areas where the Commission’s interim report differs from their own, including on bonuses and debt in the sector.

Click here to watch the evidence session live on Parliament TV.