It's presumably an ideological choice as to the levels of investment and bills that Ofwat allow the water companies to set. The companies usually claim they would be happy to invest more (which would result in higher profits in the future) but Ofwat limit it to prevent bills going up now.
The interesting question is to compare the performance of the English water industry with Scotland and Wales that have much more government involvement.
OFWAT decide in intimate detail how much is spent and on what. Water companies whatever you think of them have their hands tied behind their backs.
Water quality & leakage has dominated for years leaving nowt for sewers, waste treatment sites and hence spills. Currently funding assumes a 10,000 year life of a sewer, utter madness!
Maybe with the latest pressure on river quality more maybe spent on waste but don't expect that to be via more money, it will be at the cost of something else. We pay too little for what we expect to receive however you measure it.
The electric grid has similar issues as does the BT copper network.
