Let the great water clean-up begin
All the same, Sir Jon Cunliffe has done us a favour. Maybe no one really needed such a lengthy treatise to spot that when it comes to water regulation the nation has long been up the creek without a paddle — or that scrapping Ofwat is overdue.
Yet it's useful to see it spelt out so forensically. And with no truck, either, for the old Labour politics of environment secretary Steve Reed: a chap far too focused on sideshow stuff, such as bans on directors' bonuses, rather than a systemic fix for the problem. Cunliffe, a former Bank of England deputy governor, was clear that, given the job ahead, bills will have to rise and companies be able to pay for 'the best people'.
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