‘Broken’ water industry in England and Wales faces tighter controls under new watchdog

The South West Water Countess Wear sewage treatment works in Devon. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said environment groups will have more of a say in the cleaning-up of their local rivers. Photograph: Graham Hunt/Alamy

The “broken” water sector in England and Wales faces an era of much tighter oversight after a landmark review, including the creation of a new sector watchdog to “prevent the abuses of the past”.

With water and sewerage companies reeling from what the report’s author Sir Jon Cunliffe called their “Great Stink” moment, the government announced it would abolish Ofwat and combine its powers with those of other water watchdogs under a new “super-regulator”.