Eight new water councils will be established in England in a move the UK Government says will put communities at the heart of decisions relating to billions of pounds investment in water and flood infrastructure.

Created as part of the ongoing devolution push, the councils will bring local leaders, customers and businesses together to set the priorities for their region relating to tackling sewage, flooding, drought and securing future water supplies.

Currently, decisions about the water system are taken nationally. Under the reforms, mayors will also receive new powers via the strengthened Water Bill to hold water companies to account for their performance.

Ben Standing, Partner in planning and environment at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “Regional water councils are a genuinely significant structural development. The water sector has long operated in a framework where the planning system, Ofwat's regulatory settlement and Water Resources Management Plans all pull on the same piece of infrastructure - but they operate on different timetables, are governed by different bodies and answer to different ministers. Giving local leaders a formal voice over investment priorities directly addresses that institutional fragmentation.

“The real test will be whether these new bodies can break through that misalignment and make practical improvements. Until water issues are effectively addressed, we are likely to see increased draught. For example, in relation to housing, until we have a single, clearly accountable mechanism for matching housing consents to confirmed water capacity, the risk is not that the policy framework fails on paper, but that it succeeds on paper while homes are built and taps run dry.

“Regional water councils, properly resourced and empowered, could become an important part of that synchronisation. Infrastructure with lead times of 15 years or more means that the homes being planned and permitted today will need to be served by water infrastructure that, if not already in the pipeline, may simply not be ready. Local accountability must therefore translate into early, binding decisions on infrastructure investment - not just a louder voice after the fact.”