Water Bills

Lord Bird Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I do not have the figures to hand for the level of bad debt, but I am, of course, very happy to provide them to the noble Baroness and share them in writing.

[Lord Bird (CB)]

My Lords, is it possible to extend the argument around water to the quality of water itself and health? We have people suffering from dehydration. That is one of the major problems doctors face when people in poverty go in. Therefore, we really need to lean on the water companies. Can the Government lean on the water companies to improve the quality of water so that we do not get E. coli, as we did recently? People need water to be healthy.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that people need water to be healthy. We have the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which has a very high rating. The issues we had last year around E. coli were very unusual, but it is critical that we do not have situations like that arising again. That is why it is important to work with water companies to make sure that situations like that are going to be planned for, so that if they occur, they can be dealt with swiftly. Ideally, we need to continue to work with the Drinking Water Inspectorate to ensure that such situations do not arise in future.