Water Bills
Lord Tyrie Excerpts(2 days, 1 hour ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
Clearly, what we are aiming to do at the moment is to increase investment into our water companies. Without that increased investment, which will need to come from private sources, as the noble Lord says, we cannot make the infrastructure improvements that we so badly need.
Lord Tyrie (Non-Afl)
The Minister has described the conduct of the water companies as “disgraceful”, but is it not the responsibility of Ofwat to sort out the water companies? In that case, what steps are the Government taking to make sure that Ofwat does its job as a regulator?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The noble Lord makes an important point. We are very concerned about regulation over the past few years, which is why we are shortly starting our review into the water industry, which will also look at regulation, Ofwat and the Environment Agency, and whether that is the appropriate way to move forward.