Speaking to Utility Week, Robert Halfon, the parliamentary representative for Harlow, said: “In the Water Bill there is going to be competition for big businesses to choose their water supplier and I think that needs to be looked in to see whether it can be extended to homes.”
He added that this could help prevent costs from increasing by the “shocking” amount they have in recent years, at the same time as “directors’ pay has gone up by an obscene amount”.
In his report, Watergate: The Great Eastern Region Water Con, Halfon also urges Ofwat to introduce tougher leakage targets for water companies, and “serious penalties for companies who breach these targets”.
Halfon added that when parliament returns after its summer recess in September, he will send the report to the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee and is calling on them to launch an inquiry into the role of the regulator and how much water companies are charging the consumer.