Motion on Amendment 3

Part of Water (Special Measures) Bill [HL] - Commons Amendments – in the House of Lords at 9:15 pm on 5 February 2025.

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Photo of Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Conservative 9:15, 5 February 2025

My Lords, I shall speak briefly to Amendment 4 and the consequential Amendment 8. I support the Government in this regard. I put a question or two to the Minister on the correlation between energy poverty and water poverty. Is this something that her Government will look at closely? The Minister wrote to me with the level of bad debt, which is a staggering figure: between 2019 and 2024, it cost the water sector £2.2 billion. Will this be addressed by the amendments that she has brought before the House? That would be very welcome indeed. Obviously there are those who can pay but will not pay, but there are those vulnerable customers to which she referred, and I welcome the fact that continuity of support will be secured by these amendments. Although I lend my support, I would be grateful if the Minister could address those two brief points.