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Industry overview
Every day, over 50 million household and non-household consumers in England and Wales receive good quality water, sanitation and drainage services. These services are provided by 34 privately-owned companies in England and Wales.
Since the water and sewerage industry was privatised in 1989 a regulatory framework has been in place to ensure that consumers receive high standards of service at a fair price. This framework has allowed the companies to invest more than £98 billion in maintaining and improving assets and services. The industry must also comply with national and European legislation.
In this section you can find out more about:
- the industry today – including its achievements to date, how it operates, and the regulatory and legislative framework in which it operates
- our approach to regulation
- the future challenges that the industry faces
- how the water and sewerage sectors have developed
