Secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Margaret Beckett has announced she will address the water industry for the first time on 2 May. She will be speaking at a conference on the European water framework directive.

Forum Response: Water UK

Pamela Taylor, chief executive of Water UK, told ePolitix.com: "We're very pleased that Margaret Beckett has accepted our invitation to speak. There's a lot riding on the success of Defra. More than anything we need a strong department to set a coherent framework for the longer-term. Periodic price reviews should be more like milestones on a planned journey than wholesale reappraisals as in the past.

"This is particularly important for implementation of the water framework directive. Short-term fixes leaving most of the work and cost to water companies and their customers might look attractive, but won't provide the most effective or most economic solutions. The sustainable way depends on longer-term planning and getting stakeholders like landowners and product manufacturers more involved. Defra's leadership is essential to bringing about these changes."