Sir Ian Charles Rayner Byatt (born 11 March 1932) is a British economist who was the Director General of the economic regulator of the

water industry The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. Typically public utilities operate water supply networks. The water indust ...

in England and Wales,

Ofwat The Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, is a non-ministerial government department and body responsible for the economic regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. Ofwat's main statutory duties incl ...

, from its creation at the time of the privatization of the water industry in 1989 until 2000.

Education

He was educated at Kirkham Grammar School. He graduated from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, obtaining a doctorate with a thesis entitled
The British electrical industry, 1875-1914
' and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

Ian Byatt was Head of Public Sector Economic Unit (1972–78) and then Deputy Chief Economic Adviser (1978–89) at

Her Majesty's Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, taxa ...

under

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

. Other posts included HM Treasury 1962-4; LSE 1964-7; Dept of Education and Science 1967-9; Ministry of Housing and Local Government 1969-70; DoE 1970-2; HM Treasury 1972-89; Central Council of Education 1965-6; CNAA 1968-70; ESCR 1983-9; HM Treasury 2000-2. During his tenure as water regulator he was responsible for a substantial price reduction imposed on private water companies in 1999 that sent the share prices of these companies tumbling. Critics have also argued that instead of price cuts, it would have been better to fund improvements to the quality of water company discharges to rivers and the sea. He then joined the newly created economic consulting firm Frontier Economics. From 2005 to 2011 he was the Chairman of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, the economic regulator of the Scottish water industry. In 2012 he criticized the Thames Tideway Scheme as unnecessary and argued that private firms should not receive the massive subsidies they have requested to finance the scheme. He was knighted in the

2000 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours were announced on 19 June 2000 to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: Australia (12 June), New Zealand (13 June),New ZealandThe Queen's Birthday Honours 2000(13 June 2000), ' ...

. Byatt is a member of the academic advisory council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a group which disputes the science behind global warming.

Publications

''The British electrical industry, 1875-1914: The economic returns to a new technology'', Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979, ISBN 9780198282709. He recently self-published a collection of articles on the regulation of water companies entitled A Regulator's Sign-off:Changing the Taps in Britain

Personal life

He was born in Preston Lancashire, the son of Charles Rayner Byatt and Enid Marjorie Annie Byatt. He married the novelist

A.S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy (; 24 August 1936 – 16 November 2023), known professionally by her former married name, A.S. Byatt ( ), was an English critic, novelist, poet and short-story writer. Her books have been translated into more than thirt ...

( Drabble) in Northumberland in 1959. They had two children: one girl and one boy. Ian and AS Byatt divorced in 1969. His second spouse is Professor Deirdre Annie Kelly on 12 December 1997 in Birmingham.

References

English economists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 1935 births Alumni of the University of Oxford Knights Bachelor Living people {{UK-economist-stub