What does the Independent Water Commission's report mean for our seas?

This week, the Independent Water Commission released its final recommendations to ‘fundamentally transform how our water system works’. With only 19% of estuaries and 45% of coastal waters in England, and 22% of estuaries and coastal waters in Wales, considered to be at ‘Good Ecological Status’, it is vital for our marine environment that this report brings about the changes needed to recover the health of our waters.

The report includes 88 recommendations, ranging from brand new National strategies for England and Wales, to reforming the outdated legislation for managing our sewage.

We have been asking for the Water Commission report to provide clear and comprehensive recommendations to address all water pollution, not just sewage. We championed the report to take a ‘source to sea approach’, and to address the regulatory and monitoring gaps allowing harmful chemicals to enter the ocean. We know that we must stop pollutants at source to avoid impacts to marine wildlife, and updating outdated legislation is key to achieving this.

We have engaged in the development of these recommendations, sharing our views, submitting evidence and responding to the Interim Report, and although they miss a few key actions to reduce pollution in other sectors, we are pleased to see several of our asks included, along with references to our reports.

Although the news has focussed on the recommendation to abolish the water industry's financial regulator Ofwat and replace it with a new integrated regulator responsible for the entire water system in England, with an independent economic regulator for Wales, any new regulators must ensure that protecting and restoring the environment is the top priority.

It has been said that this is a once in a generation opportunity to fix our broken water system and restore our rivers and seas, but this report is only the beginning. Now, we need the UK and Welsh governments to take swift action on the recommendations without delay.

In England, the UK Government has already committed to taking forward some of the recommendations: abolishing Ofwat, ending water company self-monitoring and introducing regional water planning. A full response to the report, along with a consultation, will be published later this year, and there will be a new Water Reform Bill to allow any changes to become law. The Welsh Government has committed to reviewing the findings in full and progressing the recommendation for an independent economic regulator for Wales; we hope to see this done before Wales’s election in May 2026.

New recommendations will require new laws, and we are committed to making sure these are fit for purpose, for people and planet.