Clause 31
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
1:30 pm
Mark Prisk (Shadow Minister (Small Businesses and Enterprise), Trade & Industry; Hertford and Stortford, Conservative)
I suspect that the amendment will encourage us to drift beyond its terms into the substance of the clause. We discussed some of the issues on Second Reading, and the argument of the hon. Member for Solihull has considerable merit. As I believe most people would recognise, the CCW is in a slightly different situation from the bodies that deal with gas and electricity. It has been around only since 2005, whereas the other bodies have existed for five or so years. There are also differences in the markets in which they operate: water supply is perhaps more naturally the subject of a monopoly than postal services, as we have heard in debates.
Given the price review that is due in 2009, there will clearly be a problem with any merger that happens at that time. I seek a coherent plan either to bring forward the price review or to postpone the merger—we can do one or the other. The Minister indicated on Second Reading that the Government were willing to consider the form of the change. In fact, it might not have been the Minister himself; it may have been his colleague. I am not saying that they are interchangeable—they each have their own merits.