Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what modelling they have undertaken on how many households will fall into water poverty between 2025-2030 due to Ofwat's price control resulting in a 36% increase in average household water bills over this period; and what steps they are taking to mitigate this.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies must submit their estimated water poverty levels as part of their Price Review 24 business plan. From these projections we expect around 1 million households to be in water poverty by 2030. The Water Servies Regulation Authority (Ofwat) will publish a Cost-of-Living Report on affordability challenges this summer.
We expect all water companies to support customers struggling to pay their bills including more than doubling the number of customers receiving social tariffs. We will continue to take action to ensure the most vulnerable are protected from rising bills. As part of this, this Government is undertaking reforms to the statutory support scheme WaterSure.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of (1) the above inflation increase in the average household water bill in 2025/2026, and (2) the expected above inflation increase in 2026/2027, on low-income households.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies must submit their estimated water poverty levels as part of their Price Review 24 business plan. From these projections we expect around 1 million households to be in water poverty by 2030. The Water Servies Regulation Authority (Ofwat) will publish a Cost-of-Living Report on affordability challenges this summer.
We expect all water companies to support customers struggling to pay their bills including more than doubling the number of customers receiving social tariffs. We will continue to take action to ensure the most vulnerable are protected from rising bills. As part of this, this Government is undertaking reforms to the statutory support scheme WaterSure.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of forthcoming infrastructure investments by water companies on the affordability of water bills.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies must submit their estimated water poverty levels as part of their Price Review 24 business plan. From these projections we expect around 1 million households to be in water poverty by 2030. The Water Servies Regulation Authority (Ofwat) will publish a Cost-of-Living Report on affordability challenges this summer.
We expect all water companies to support customers struggling to pay their bills including more than doubling the number of customers receiving social tariffs. We will continue to take action to ensure the most vulnerable are protected from rising bills. As part of this, this Government is undertaking reforms to the statutory support scheme WaterSure.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect products that benefit from protected geographical or traditional status under EU legislation.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government recognises the economic and cultural importance of UK geographical indications (GIs). We are working with the Devolved Administrations and stakeholders to develop new UK GI schemes for when we leave the EU.
We will use the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to ensure that GI schemes are in place on day one of leaving the EU for wines, aromatised wines, spirit drinks, agricultural products and foodstuffs. This will provide UK protection for UK GIs when we leave the EU and ensure that the UK fulfils its obligations under World Trade Organisation Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights rules.
The protection of UK GIs in the EU and EU GIs in the UK is subject to ongoing negotiations. We anticipate that all current UK GIs will continue to be protected by the EU’s GI schemes after we leave the EU.