Queen’s Speech

Baroness Parminter Excerpts

Wednesday 16th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Parminter]

My Lords, for Liberal Democrats, there is much to be welcomed in the gracious Speech. The proposals for a green investment bank and an energy Bill will help us meet legally binding carbon reduction targets to reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050. Beyond that—here, I fear that I will diverge from the views of my noble friend Lady Noakes, who is sadly not in her place—they are welcome because they will help secure investment in low-carbon power generation, create green jobs and deliver lower consumer energy bills in the face of escalating world oil and gas prices.

However, I shall focus on another welcome green proposal in the speech, which has not had much mention in the House today: a commitment to a draft water Bill. One of the many challenges that we face in the UK and across Europe is protecting the health of our rivers and lakes while keeping water available and affordable. Water resources are under pressure from current unsustainable levels of abstraction, with the Environment Agency calculating that only one-quarter of our rivers and lakes are fully functioning ecosystems.

The water abstraction system was set up more than 40 years ago, in the decade I was born. Given the damage already done to ecosystems, maintaining such a system is untenable, particularly as the effects of climate change and the extreme weather it brings us, combined with population growth in the UK, all take hold. The Government’s water White Paper suggested that legislation to change the abstraction regime would not take effect until the mid-to-late 2020s. I endorse the conclusions of the report by the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee D on EU freshwater policy, published just two weeks ago, which says that delaying this reform for at least 15 years fails to respond to the urgency of the situation.

That urgency is further highlighted when one considers the planned shift to low-carbon energy generation over the coming years. The electricity supply industry is already responsible for 43% of water abstraction, more than the amount abstracted for public use. Do the Government have the research to inform the draft Bill about the possible water abstraction demands of differing electricity supply models over the next 20 years? Just how water-intensive is nuclear energy as opposed to electricity supplied by wind farms? Given the pressures that differing supply scenarios may put on the water supply, undertaking such analysis and making it publicly available would seem essential.

I recognise that changes to the abstraction licensing regime will be complex, with more than 30,000 licences in existence—although, to be blunt, it cannot be as complex as reorganising the National Health Service. However, we must act now to fundamentally reform the regime so that it takes into account the environmental realities that we face. Can the Minister therefore explain why the Government feel that they can produce a draft water Bill in 2012 but intend to wait until beyond the lifetime of this Parliament to deal comprehensively with overabstraction?

Tackling water pollution is also a priority. Defra estimates the cost of treatment technology to tackle certain pharmaceutical substances alone in wastewater to be around £27 billion. It is essential that the Government work with our European partners to acquire more knowledge of the risks posed principally by pharmaceutical substances entering wastewater and the methods of reducing this risk before effluent containing the substances requires wastewater treatment. As a Liberal Democrat committed to the “polluter pays” principle, I hope that this would include consideration of the contribution that pharmaceutical manufacturers could be asked to make to mitigating those risks.

As my noble friend Lady Miller pointed out, this draft Bill is an important opportunity to engender recognition of the ecosystem services that water provides. The announcement of the members of the Natural Capital Committee last Friday was a welcome sign of the Government’s commitment to embedding the value of natural capital and its potential to support growth into decision-making, as is the Government’s commitment to further reform of the CAP to promote the farming industry’s role as custodians of the natural environment. Businesses which rely on water as part of their industrial and creative processes need to factor water supply into their decision-making, and this draft Bill could help by introducing a requirement for businesses to measure their water impacts and develop specific water strategies to ensure security of their water supply. In this draft Bill, will the Government help companies ensure such water resilience?

Businesses need to review their use of water and seek to minimise wastage, but so do we need to keep bills low. We will therefore have to do more to help people value and save water. Smart water metering, combined with advice on how to reduce water usage, and social tariffs which minimise affordability issues for disadvantaged heavy-use households, give consumers greater control over their water consumption. In France, water meters are compulsory, and by 2015 over half the homes in England and Wales will be on water meters. Liberal Democrats support compulsory smart water metering in water-stressed areas and I hope the draft Bill will propose this measure for England and Wales.

Keeping water bills affordable—at present the average household bill is about £1 a day for water and sewerage—is important. However, in these challenging economic times, if people have to pay more for this crucial resource we must ensure that they fully understand what they are paying for. They must feel connected to their local areas and know the benefits that freshwater lakes, rivers and streams provide for their local wildlife and ecosystems. To that end, the recently launched “Love Your River” campaign, supported by Defra, along with the National Trust, the Wildlife Trusts, Keep Britain Tidy, Waterwise and the water companies, is to be applauded.

If, however, we are to get individuals to start being more responsible with their water usage, it is critical that it is seen that the water companies tackle leakages with renewed vigour. The Environment Agency estimates that the current rate of leakages from our water supply is 20 to 25%. That seems a remarkably high figure to regard as acceptable. Ofwat should focus far more on the environmental impacts when setting future leakage targets for water companies.

The draft water Bill has the potential to deliver much to conserve this vital resource for both the public and our economy. The opportunity must not be squandered in the expectation that the privatised market will alone deliver the scale and pace of change that is urgently required.