The regulatory system governing the water industry has generally served the public well enough and the country’s beaches are a great deal cleaner than they used to be, although that has more to do with the European Union than anything else. Still, one wonders sometimes if the scales are weighted in favour of the water companies and against the regulator.
The latest five-year regulatory period started a year ago. Severn Trent was seen as the least efficient of them all in delivering water and it was instructed to cut its costs by £372 million. The company said that it would be cutting its dividend by 5 per cent as a consequence, not good news for those retail investors who bought in at privatisation and rely