By law Dutch companies providing drinking water have to remain in public hands. In practice, public shareholders often fulfil their role in an informal fashion and without much engagement. They hardly intervene to protect the public interest. Public ownership is deemed to be crucial but its effects are difficult to measure. In this article, we examine the (ever changing and varying) institutional conditions of two public water companies and discuss whether these conditions enable public shareholders to properly control these companies. By comparing the opinions and experiences of directly involved respondents, this article aims to answer the question whether and how public shareholders are able to act as regulators. There are indications that this kind of regulation will not be efficient enough when needed, though those involved do not see this as a problem. This article offers suggestions for municipalities and provinces to reflect more on their role in the drinking water sector.

In 2010 the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) concluded that the Social Support Act (Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning, Wmo) is successful as it leads to greater coherence in policies, and because the public Wmo-advisory councils are satisfied with the role they play. Wmo councils provide solicited and unsolicited advice to municipalities. They defend citizens’ interests against those of health care providers and insurance companies. Despite the positive results of the SCP study, there is an ongoing debate about the restyling of the Wmo-councils to increase their influence on local policy making. Some studies even call for a national council to prevent bargaining between the Associations of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS).

In this exploratory article, the authors analyse the influence of five local Wmo-councils - Alkmaar, Delft, Kerkrade, Tilburg and Utrecht - on local policy making. They examined the recognition and authority of these five councils and studied if municipalities heeded their advice. The article shows, that Wmo-councils themselves are dissatisfied with the influence they have. Subsequently, it demonstrates that municipalities anticipated the actions of Wmo-councils but hardly ever changed their policies accordingly. Wmo-councils are meant as a horizontal counterweight but are in danger of not being taken seriously.