GUEST COLUMN:
Dr David Clubb
Chair
NICW
We often hear that new policies are once-in-a-generation opportunities. Sometimes it’s even true, which is certainly the case for water regulation in Wales. Welsh Government recently kicked off a consultation via a Green paper, “Shaping the Future of Water Governance in Wales”, which aims to set up a Welsh economic regulator and a long-term water strategy.
It follows from the Cunliffe review that recognised the legal and regulatory inconsistencies in a joint Wales-and-England approach. A new economic regulator for Wales will enable Welsh legal and policy priorities to be embedded within the water industry. The precedent will doubtless prove interesting for other contentious areas too; the energy regulator, Ofgem, has been criticised in the past for its inflexibility with regard to law in Wales vis a vis UK regulation.
Our response started by highlighting the parlous ecological condition of our rivers. Only 40% of Welsh waterbodies achieved ‘good' ecological status in 2024, far short of the 100% target set for 2027 under the Water Framework Directive. Sadly, due to leaving the European Union (Brexit), we lost the ‘stick’ of fines due to our non-compliance. With the loss of financial interest, the only incentive to improve appears to be the moral case, which has demonstrably failed.
Even this 40% figure is almost certainly a misrepresentation; in Wales NRW doesn’t monitor for four sets of pollutants that are part of regular sampling in England, with the result that whilst our rivers may appear statistically cleaner than those across the border, it seems unlikely that the evidence can provide us with this reassurance.
So our response is contextualised by nature; given that Welsh Government has declared a Nature Emergency, and that water is the foundation of life, a future regulator must have powers to enforce action to reduce pollution, including through policies to reduce pollutants entering watercourses. Future Generations of Wales deserve a water environment of genuine ecological abundance. The new governance structures must be built with that ambition at their heart.
Our Building Resilience to Flooding report demonstrated that extreme rainfall is now routine rather than exceptional. Our Water Infrastructure Assessment 2026 confirms that ageing assets and escalating drought risk demand a shift from reactive, short-term responses toward proactive, long-term planning. Any new governance and institutional structures must place a genuinely holistic view at their core.
A Wales-specific regulator can provide clearer accountability and a more predictable environment for long-term investment. The new body must operate under a statutory strategy of at least 25 years, with binding multi-year guidance for price reviews. It should have statutory independence comparable to Audit Wales, and it must retain fines and outcome delivery incentives within Wales for reinvestment into water and environmental improvements.
We also note that the target of having the regulator operational by 2030 to lead the PR34 price review is ambitious. We have observed that civil servants sometimes struggle to manage the demands made of them, and have concerns that there will not be sufficient resource dedicated to implement the substantial legislative and regulatory changes required in such a short timeline.
One of the most significant proposals in the Green Paper is the creation of a National System Planning Function. A strategic approach should enable holistic and long-term thinking, creating confidence within communities and industry that short-term political considerations will not change the overall course.
We recommend that this planning function sits within the new Welsh regulator, provided its operational independence and cross-sector remit are firmly protected. It must have the authority and duty to integrate water planning with land use, housing, energy, flood risk, and transport strategies, preventing the kind of siloed infrastructure decisions that have undermined Wales’ strategic approach. Effective system planning must also include robust cross-border arrangements for shared catchments such as the Severn and the Dee. We cannot risk regulatory authority during the transition period.
Running through all of our responses is a concern about public trust. Confidence in Wales's water system has been eroded by years of poor performance, inadequate accountability, and opaque data. Rebuilding that trust requires a genuine commitment to transparency: interpretive performance dashboards, catchment-by-catchment resilience assessments, and data on river health that is accessible to communities, not just specialists.
We also believe that nature should have a genuine voice at the decision-making level of water-based organisations. Nowhere would mandatory nature representation on boards be more appropriate than in a sector whose entire purpose is to steward the water environment.
The reforms outlined in this Green Paper, if delivered with ambition and care, could set a precedent for how Wales coordinates infrastructure governance across all sectors. We are ready to play our part. You can read our full response on our website.
