Clause 16 - Charges schemes

Part of Water Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:15 am on 10 December 2013.

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Photo of Pat Glass Pat Glass Labour, North West Durham 9:15, 10 December 2013

I will not. We have heard that Thames Water has just been refused authority to increase its prices by 11% to pay for the new London sewer. I  suggest that Thames Water customers, of which I am one, have paid for this sewer over and over again. If Thames Water paid out a little less in bonuses and dividends it could pay for that sewer without borrowing or putting up prices.

I was extremely disappointed to hear last week that only three water companies have so far managed to put social tariff schemes in place. The representative from Water UK kept telling us, not very convincingly, that these three were put in place at the first opportunity. They have had five years to get their act together collectively. The way he blamed the Government, the regulator and, finally, customers will just not wash. Every customer who does pay is paying an extra £15 on their bill to cover bad debts and most are probably not aware of it. So much depends on the question and the way you ask it. If the water companies say to customers, “Would you like to pay a couple of extra pounds to cover a social tariff scheme?” the answer, especially with today’s cost of living, would be no. Most people are struggling. However, if it was made clear that they were actually paying £15 on every bill to cover bad debts, that would at least put the question into a little more perspective.

As things stand, the water companies can sit back, do absolutely nothing and pass on the cost of bad debts to their customers, because there is no incentive for them to put a social tariff scheme in place. Coming back to what I said at the beginning, my constituents and, I am sure, those of Government Members, are struggling enormously to pay bills, whether it is energy or water bills. It is really important that the Government build affordability into the Bill, otherwise constituents such as mine will simply turn into bad debts.