 As a result of the passing of the Water Act 1973, responsibility for Liverpool's water supply and sewerage passed to a regional water authority, and thus Upper Roddlesworth Reservoir became one of the assets of the newly-formed North West Water Authority.The Conservative Party then saw privatisation as a way to deal with the huge funding gap facing the water industry, and responsibility for the reservoir passed to the water and sewerage company North West Water plc following the passing of the Water Act 1989.North West Water merged with Norweb in 1995 to become United Utilities, the present owners of the asset.