CCW Chair Rob Wilson’s speech to Moody’s UK Water 2025

Good morning and thank you to Moody’s for inviting me to address this conference.  Whenever I tell people I’m speaking at a water conference, they usually say one of two things: either ‘hmmm that sounds.… interesting,’ (I’m still not sure what they mean by that) or ‘can you do something about my bill?’ Both remind me how important – and how personal – this issue has become for the public.

So it’s a real pleasure to be here with so many of you who hold, quite literally, the future of this sector in your hands – company leaders, investors, regulators, and government colleagues.

Together, we represent the system that provides the most essential public service there is: clean, safe, reliable water – and the stewardship of the environment that makes it possible. We might want to ask ourselves: ‘How did an industry so essential to life find itself struggling for its own future?’

Today I want to speak candidly.

Because as the Chair of the Consumer Council for Water, I have a duty to bring the voice of the public into rooms like this one – especially when that voice is uneasy, uncertain, or sometimes unheard.

I think we can all agree that as things stand today, public confidence in this sector is at a historic low.

We all need to knowledge the reality of where we are.

Over the past few years, we’ve all seen the headlines, the protests, the frustration.
People feel let down – not just by individual failures, but by what they perceive as a system that’s stopped putting the public first. You don’t need me to repeat the reasons, but for the sake of clarity here is a very short summary of the key concerns:

• Pollution incidents.
• Storm overflows
• Leakage levels that don’t seem to budge enough for the public
• Perceptions of excessive executive pay and shareholder rewards at a time when environmental and service performance have faltered. And for customers – rising bills, while trust falls.

Let’s be honest — this isn’t just a communications problem. It’s a confidence problem. And, as we know, consumer confidence isn’t something you can issue in a press release. It’s earned – through behaviour, through action, and through time.

How we got here

The truth is public confidence wasn’t lost overnight. It eroded — slowly, often quietly (more recently not so quietly) – every time people saw outcomes that didn’t match the promises.

Every time a company talked about values, but failed to live up to them.
Every time a regulator’s assurance felt out of step with the customers’ lived experience.
Every time a customer saw a river they love in decline.

When CCW and Ofwat did research in April 2024, 40% of people said that water providers are more interested in profits than providing a good service AND only 22% of people agreed that water companies act in the interest of consumers.

Perhaps this is not surprising in some ways.

But this isn’t and should not be about blame. It’s about recognition. Because we cannot rebuild what we don’t first understand.

And it’s also about humility – understanding that in essential public services, legitimacy doesn’t come from our business models or our balance sheets.

It comes from trust.

If the public stops believing that the water industry acts in their interest, then the entire framework – investment, regulation, even the social contract itself – becomes unstable. And speaking frankly that is where we are today.

But we have arrived at an important moment.

It’s why the work of the Independent Water Commission has been so important. It’s forced all of us to look hard at the model, to ask whether it’s still fit for purpose, and to imagine what renewal might look like.

But the Commission was never the end point – it was a line in the sand. A chance for a reset and change what has gone wrong.

Right now, we are at an inflection point.

We can either wait for confidence to try to be restored to us – by regulators, by government, by communications or we can take the initiative and restore it ourselves through leadership, transparency, and genuine change.

That’s really what I want to talk about today: how we move forward together – how we translate this moment of reckoning into a period of renewal.

I want to now turn to how confidence is a form of capital

In the world that many of you operate in, you understand the value of capital.
But let’s remember – financial capital isn’t the only form that matters.

There is also social capital – the trust, goodwill, and permission that the public gives you to operate, invest, and make a return.

Lose social capital, and financial capital becomes more expensive.
Lose it entirely, and you actually risk losing your licence to operate.

So, restoring public confidence isn’t just about doing the right thing morally – it’s about securing the long-term viability of the sector itself.

And the good news is: it is possible.

Public trust can be rebuilt. But only if we make visible, verifiable commitments – and stick to them.

Three Pillars for Renewal

Let me suggest three pillars or areas where we can start to turn the tide.

Firstly, Radical Transparency

If we want to rebuild confidence, we must open ourselves to scrutiny. Not reluctantly, not selectively – but confidently.

We need to go beyond compliance reporting to something much more fundamental: openness as a default.

Real-time data on pollution incidents, leakage, river health.
Public, accessible information on performance, customer outcomes, and environmental impacts.
Independent verification that people will trust.

Because when information is hidden, suspicion now fills the gap. But when you invite scrutiny – when you show you have nothing to hide – trust begins to grow.

This isn’t just about publishing data. It’s about being open and honest, early and consistently.

When things go wrong – say so. Explain what you’re doing to fix it.
When you make progress — share it, but don’t oversell it.

Transparency is powerful precisely because it turns accountability into a daily discipline, not a defensive exercise.

Second, Rebalance Accountability

The second pillar is about how we hold ourselves – and each other – to account.

Customers look at the sector and ask: “How can it be that poor performance and high rewards coexist?”

It’s not an unreasonable question.

If we want to restore confidence, the link between outcomes and rewards must be credible and visible.

That means executive pay and dividends aligned with real-world results – cleaner rivers, fewer pollution incidents, improved customer service, and genuine progress on affordability.

It means governance that is rooted in the public interest – boards that reflect society’s and customer’s values, not only investor priorities.

And it means incentives that promote long-term stewardship, not short-term extraction.

Investors have a vital role here too. The best investors already understand that environmental and social performance is part of financial performance.

Long-term value depends on trust. And trust depends on fairness.

If we can get that balance right – between financial resilience and social legitimacy – then confidence will follow naturally.

Thirdly, Genuine Consumer Partnership

Perhaps the most important of all – is to rebuild the relationship between water companies and the people they serve.

For too long, customers have been talked about more than they’ve been talked to.

We’ve informed them, surveyed them, reported to them — but too rarely involved them.

That must change.

Consumers are not passive recipients of a service – they are partners in its success. They are actually paying for most of the £100bn plus investment. They care deeply about water quality, the environment, and fairness.

We need to create mechanisms for genuine participation – citizen panels, local accountability forums, co-designed service commitments.

Let customers help shape priorities, and you’ll earn not only their confidence but their advocacy.

At CCW, we see this every day.

When customers are listened to, they respond with understanding – even generosity. But when they’re ignored, every misstep becomes a symbol of disrespect.

Rebuilding that relationship isn’t a PR exercise. It’s a cultural shift. And it starts with humility: the willingness to listen before explaining.

And I genuinely believe this sector has the capability, the expertise, and the heart to deliver on these three pillars. I know the people I meet week in week out in the industry are good people trying hard to make a difference. And the people in this room know what good looks like — and now you have the chance to lead by example.

Showing Leadership

Let me now turn to the subject of leadership and Collective Responsibility

Now, none of what I’ve just said will happen overnight. Trust takes years to build and seconds to lose.

But it can be rebuilt – if the industry shows that it understands the depth of the challenge and has the courage to act differently.

And here’s where leadership really matters.

Because restoring confidence cannot be delegated – not to regulators, not to government, not to communications teams.

It has to be owned – in boardrooms, in investment decisions, in everyday operations.

Every choice you make, every message you send, every dividend, every bonus  – these are not just financial or operational decisions. They are confidence decisions.

They tell the public what kind of industry we are.

If the sector can show – consistently – that it is acting in the public interest, that it shares the public’s environmental values, and that it is prepared to be held accountable – then confidence will return.

It will take time. But it will come, and I do have confidence in the leaders I have got to know.

Rebuilding confidence

So as we look ahead, I’d offer one simple but shared test.

For every decision – whether it’s regulatory, financial, or operational — ask yourselves:

“If this were explained on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper, would the public see it as fair, responsible, and in their interest?”

If the answer is yes – you are rebuilding confidence.
If the answer is no – you are eroding it.

It’s that simple.

We don’t need a new narrative – we need new evidence.

Evidence of responsibility.
Evidence of respect for the environment.
Evidence of listening to the people you serve.

Because confidence, once restored, becomes the strongest foundation of all – for investment, for legitimacy, and for pride in what this sector can and does achieve.

Turning crisis into renewal

One final thought to leave you all with.

We have a rare opportunity right now – to turn crisis into renewal.
To move beyond the defensive posture of the past few years, and to redefine what responsible water stewardship looks like in the 21st century.

If we get this right, we won’t just rebuild trust.
We’ll create a sector that is admired again – by customers, by investors, and by future generations.

Because at its heart, water isn’t just an industry.
It’s a public promise….one we all share responsibility for

It’s the right time to make that promise real again.