Schedule 4 — Reservoirs

Part of Compensation Act 2006 (Amendment) – in the House of Commons at 9:47 pm on 2 February 2010.

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Photo of Ian McCartney Ian McCartney Labour, Makerfield 9:47, 2 February 2010

I will take a maximum of two minutes, Mr. Speaker.

I welcome all aspects of the Bill, particularly as one of those who originally gave evidence to Sir Michael Pitt's inquiry and who was interviewed about some of the recommendations that we wanted it to come up with. That inquiry and its recommendations were excellent. As a consequence, the Bill will be welcomed throughout the country as a major contribution towards resolving the issues that need resolving.

Today we debated social tariffs, subsidies and cross-subsidies. The water industry is one where cross-subsidies through social tariffs are important, because all the capital investment and all the infrastructure changes that have taken place-and will continue to take place-constitute capital with a shared risk. Through their rates, poor constituents of mine subsidise, with huge sums of money, investments on the Fylde coast in Lancashire and in parts of Cumbria on the west coast, as well as other investments in other parts of the region, and quite rightly so. It is therefore important that what the Bill does should not be seen as a sop to a few people in some communities who are poor. The poor make huge contributions towards the capital infrastructure of the water industry, yet they are sometimes poorly treated, in the services that they get and the costs for those services. I welcome the Bill as striking a balance between affordability on the one hand and shared risk in capital investment on the other.

My final point is about affordability, which also affects insurance. We simply cannot leave that elephant in the room any longer. The lives of tens of thousands of our constituents are being ruined-and they will continue to be ruined in the years to come-by an industry that cannot deal appropriately with the issues of insurance and shared risk. We need shared risk in insurance. Without that, we will not get the investment that we need to ensure that communities can be more resilient in future than they are now.