Ofwat, the failing water regulator that presided over Britain’s sewage crisis, still exists more than a year after the Government said it would be abolished, with employees left in the dark and threatening to strike.

Labour ministers vowed to scrap Ofwat and create a new watchdog last July following a major review of the water industry, amid criticism that the agency had been “toothless” in its regulation of water firms during the sewage crisis.

The move was a win for The i Paper’s Save Britain’s Rivers campaign, which had been calling for tougher regulation of the water industry.

14 months of ‘uncertainty and drift’

Ofwat has been heavily criticised for its role in the sewage crisis, in particular for allowing companies to pay high dividends while underinvesting in their network, and for keeping bills too low for a period during the 2010s. 

Its replacement was not expected to be up and running for several more years – but more information on the transition had been expected by now.

Employees are now threatening strike action due to the lack of transparency, saying they have experienced 14 months of “uncertainty and drift”. 

Last year, ministers promised to publish a transition plan, but this has not materialised. 

The i Paper understands that Sir Keir Starmer’s government had developed a plan to move regulatory powers from Ofwat, but Andy Burnham decided not to publish it as he plans to go further on water reforms than his predecessor. 

More information on the new regulator will be set out in the upcoming Clean Water Bill. The bill was originally expected by the end of this year, but the Government has refused to put a date on it.

Speaking at Labour conference on Tuesday, Burnham said Environment Secretary Angela Eagle would present a “strengthened” bill to Parliament, but did not provide a timeline. 

‘We know literally nothing more’

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) at Ofwat are currently being balloted for strike action as they demand more information regarding the transition, including redundancies.

“It’s understandable that they didn’t necessarily have all these answers on day one back in July 2025, but after 14 months we know literally nothing more, and it’s really causing our members a lot of distress,” a PCS spokesperson told The i Paper.

The representative said workers felt they had been used as a “scapegoat” for a “headline” and urged the Government to provide “the reasonable and basic assurances our members need to get us through whatever changes are coming”. 

Burnham’s plan for public ownership

The decision to scrap Ofwat was announced in July last year in response to a review by Sir Jon Cunliffe, former Bank of England deputy governor. It examined how the regulation of the water industry could be reformed to tackle issues including sewage pollution. 

Since becoming Prime Minister, Burnham has been critical of the review, arguing that it was “limited” in scope – likely a reference to the Starmer government’s decision to exclude the question of nationalisation. 

On Tuesday, Burnham said the “centrepiece” of the upcoming water bill would be “the repeal of Margaret Thatcher’s ideological ban on public ownership of water companies”.

This will remove the current limits put in place by Thatcher’s Conservative administration on the maximum shares the Government can hold in a water company, which currently sits between one and three per cent depending on the firm. 

So far, Burnham has stopped short of committing to full-scale public ownership of the water industry.

Further details are expected as part of the Prime Minister’s 10-year plan for Britain, which will be published later this year.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs declined to comment.