Welsh Government asked Westminster to delay transfer of water powers to Wales

A major row has broken out after it emerged that the Welsh Government asked Westminster five years ago to delay transferring full powers over water to Wales.

Plaid Cymru’s former leader Adam Price believes the move represents a significant failure in governance and has let down Wales.

Water has been an especially emotive issue in Wales for many decades since the drowning of the village of Capel Celyn in the Tryweryn Valley in 1965 to supply water to Liverpool.

Currently the Welsh Government has jurisdiction over Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, but not over Severn Trent Water, which supplies water to parts of mid and north Wales as well as to England, or United Utilities, which also supplies water from Wales to England.

Welsh Water has a licence to take 133 billion litres per year from Elan Valley reservoirs in Powys to supply Severn Trent customers as part of a deal between the two firms.

United Utilities can take 252 million litres a day from Lake Vyrnwy in Powys, which is owned by Severn Trent, and 50 million litres a day from the River Dee.

Full powers

Recently Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts strongly criticised new plans that would see large quantities of water transported from Wales for the benefit of consumers in the south east of England. She called for full powers over water to be devolved to Wales.

However, a disclosure to Mr Price under the Freedom of Information Act has now revealed that in December 2018 the Welsh Government’s Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn wrote to the UK’s then junior Environment Minister Therese Coffey asking her to delay the transfer of full powers over water to Wales – something that had become possible following the passing of the Wales Act 2017 the previous year.

In her letter, Ms Blythyn stated: “I am writing to seek your agreement to postpone the commencement date for the implementation of the water competence alignment provisions in the Wales Act 2017. The Wales Act 2017 contains powers to align legislative and executive competence in relation to water with the geographical boundary of Wales and England.

“The statutory requirements in respect of water companies currently reflect their operational areas so Welsh Ministers are responsible for companies wholly or mainly in Wales and the Secretary of State is responsible for companies wholly or mainly in England. The powers in the Wales Act 2017 enable the functions to be split to reflect a Wales and England split along the border.”

Significant work

Ms Blythyn went on to state that “significant work” was required to map out all of these functions and to determine the policy to apply in the individual areas.

She added: “The approach will need to be developed with minimal impact on customers and the water companies. We had originally agreed to alignment taking place in April 2020. This is proving to be a complex process. The water companies affected will operate across two legislative and regulatory frameworks, and provision for alignment has not been made in the planning for the 2020 – 2025 business plans.

“It involves government, regulators and water companies reviewing and amending a variety of legislation and statutory plans (such as Water Resource Management Plans and Drought Plans) which currently operate on a cross border basis, and resolving a number of complex licencing and regulatory issues, and considering changes to the licence of Welsh Water to enable the one company to operate within two legislative and regulatory frameworks.

“If legislative and executive competence with the geographical boundary of England and Wales takes effect in 2020 the impacts and effects won’t be evident until the next round of business plans as companies have already submitted their business plans and charging proposals for determination by [the industry regulator] Ofwat. Officials and lawyers, the water companies and regulators need to work through the relevant legislative elements to determine when would be the best time for the changes to happen, and how they should be phased in.

“There is a need for transitional/phased approaches so as not to cause unnecessary complications or adverse impacts on customers by requiring the companies to change approach half way through statutory plans. Whilst a significant amount of this work has already been done it has become increasingly challenging to progress this work due to competing priorities such as Storm Emma/ ‘Beast from the East’ earlier this year and the period of dry weather over the summer.

“In addition, key officials are also working on ensuring the water sector is resilient against the challenges of Brexit. We remain committed to delivering the changes; however, we need to make the alignment work for customers, the environment and the companies. I therefore seek your agreement to reschedule the target date for the implementation of the alignment to Spring 2022. This would enable water companies and regulators to plan for this in their next round of business plans and statutory plans, and provide all parties with sufficient time to consider and resolve the complex issues that have emerged.”

Yet a year after Ms Blythyn’s target date of Spring 2022, full water powers have still not been devolved.

Ideological

Previously, when asked about the failure to transfer the powers, First Minister Mark Drakeford has stated: “Since 2019, we have faced a government in Westminster that doesn’t respond to issues on [a] rational basis; it responds to them on the entirely ideological basis that devolution was a mistake and that the work of the Westminster government is to roll it back in the opposite direction wherever it can, and quite certainly never to transfer new powers to Scotland or Wales, even when it was a Conservative government that had made the arrangements that would have allowed that to take place.”

Mr Price said: “The disclosure of this letter shows it was the Welsh Government that called for a delay in transferring the powers. Even now, a year after the deadline it set itself for the transfer, the powers remain at Westminster.

“We deserve a full explanation from the Welsh Government as to why it has not secured the full powers Wales should have over water.

“Wales has been let down by what is a significant failure in governance.”