3.121 The water and sewerage industry has performed well since privatisation, with around £90 billion of investment contributing to improvements in security of supply, reliability of service and asset quality.
3.122 The Government's ambitions are to:
• maintain the water industry's good performance (in terms of security of supply, water quality and the effective removal of waste water) in the face of rising demand and climate change pressures;
• improve the quality of England's water environment, through reduced pollution and sustainable abstraction, improving the status of water bodies in line with the objectives contained within the EU Water Framework Directive; and
• support the water regulator and industry in delivering a greater level and quality of customer service, and ensuring water and sewerage services are provided at prices households can afford.
3.123 The first set of River Basin Management Plans contain measures that will improve the number of water bodies achieving good status from 26 per cent to 30 per cent in England by 2015 (primarily through water company measures) and the Environment Agency has committed to achieve an additional two per cent improvement over the first cycle (2009-2015). In addition, the Environment Agency and water companies are undertaking an expansive investigation programme, due to be completed at the end of 2012, which will help resolve a range of uncertainties about the nature, extent and cause of failures to achieve good status. The majority of improvements will not be seen until the latter part of the first cycle or into the second, due to the time lag between measures being put in place and improvements in ecology being identified.
3.124 Diffuse pollution from agricultural land and the built environment are significant pressures. The Government will continue to work to reduce the pollutants entering water sources. Improvements to sewerage infrastructure will continue to be needed to meet current standards, both to serve increasing populations and maintain, or improve, performance of existing assets.