Clause 35

Part of Flood and Water Management Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:00 pm on 21 January 2010.

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Photo of Anne McIntosh Anne McIntosh Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) 2:00, 21 January 2010

The amendment highlights an unintended consequence of the Bill that the Minister may not be aware of, and the difficulty that the Government have created for themselves. We believe that when allowing major infrastructure projects to be tendered, it is regrettable that under proposed new part 2A, water companies would be prevented from tendering. I do not know whether it is intended, but proposed new section 36B(2) states that water companies are excluded from tendering. The amendments, therefore, are exploratory probing ones, to ask why water companies are excluded, and why a water or sewerage undertaker would be prevented  from tendering when they might have the expertise and might be best placed to submit a tender. They might come up with the most competitive tender for a major infrastructure project, and that would help the consumer or the developer. We seek to allow water companies and sewerage undertakers to participate in the tendering process.

Amendment 19, which would perhaps be more elegantly phrased if it said “regulations” rather than “regulators”, would allow a water or sewerage undertaker not just to undertake an infrastructure project but to tender in accordance with the regulations. Amendment 20 would allow an incumbent water or sewerage undertaker to tender for and carry out projects from which they are currently excluded, and amendment 21 would enable the sewerage or water undertaker to prepare its own plan for a specified infrastructure project, and therefore participate in the competitive process for major infrastructure projects.

The amendments, I hope, recognise the skills, experience and expertise that the water and sewerage companies hold for the benefit of the customers in those circumstances. Amendment 20 would allow the incumbent water or sewerage undertaker to carry out a project itself, if there had not been a successful outcome to the tender project within a year. We would allow the tendering to run for a year. We believe that it is a missed opportunity that the Government would exclude those water companies, whom we believe might be best placed, from participating in the process.