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Under the legislation in force, in particular the Water Industry Act 1991 (‘the WIA 1991’), as amended, the current allocation of statutory powers in the water supply and sewerage sector can be summarised as follows: — water companies are appointed as sewerage undertaker and/or water undertaker for a given area of England and Wales by the Water Services Regulatory Authority (OFWAT). That authority is also, by itself or, in certain circumstances, jointly with the Secretary of State (the minister with responsibility for environmental matters), the authority with primary responsibility for supervising those companies; — currently, 10 companies have been appointed as water and sewerage companies (WASCs) and 12 have been appointed solely as ‘water only companies’ (WOCs), so that, in each area of England and Wales, either a single company provides both water supply and sewerage services, or one company is responsible for water supply whilst another company deals with sewerage in the area concerned in addition to its water supply and sewerage activities in another area; — the water companies are set up as a public limited company or a limited company. They are run by a board of directors responsible to shareholders and are operated on normal commercial principles, as set out in their memorandum and articles of association, with the aim of generating profits for distribution to shareholders as dividends and for reinvestment in the business; — the companies must comply with a number of statutory duties relating to maintenance and improvement of infrastructure and to water supply and/or sewage treatment in their respective areas; — they also hold certain statutory powers, which include powers of compulsory purchase, the right to make byelaws relating to waterways and land in their ownership, the power to discharge water, including into private watercourses, the right to impose temporary hosepipe bans and the power to decide, in relation to certain customers and subject to strict conditions, to cut off the supply of water; — these duties and powers are set out in the instrument of appointment (‘licence’) of each company. The licence may also include other conditions, such as a condition requiring payment of a fee to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State and/or OFWAT ensure that the terms of the licence are complied with. The companies may be required to carry out specific actions or measures. The licence can be terminated only on 25 years’ notice, with reasons. It may be modified by OFWAT with the company’s consent or after a Competition Commission report; — the legal regime to which the water companies are subject also provides for the possibility of financial penalties being imposed upon them and partly takes them outside the ordinary provisions for the dissolution of companies; — every five years, the water companies submit a draft asset management plan, also known as a ‘business plan’, in which they set out details, for a five-year period, of their desired outputs, in particular investment programmes. In the course of a consultation process those plans are finalised and OFWAT determines, taking into consideration the elements of the investment programmes that it considers appropriate, the maximum amounts that the companies will be allowed to charge their customers in order to finance the business plans and, in particular, the investment that they envisage. The current plans cover the years 2010 to 2015.