Water Companies: Failure Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Grade of Yarmouth
Main Page: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Grade of Yarmouth's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(3 months ago)
Lords ChamberI absolutely assure the right reverend Prelate that this would be the case. If a water company were to go into administration, the special administrator would take control of the company and it would be regulated in exactly the same way as any other water company and subject to all the same environmental rules and regulations.
My Lords, we have reached the end of a long period of very low interest rates, during which the regulated utilities have taken on a great deal of debt. That was not a problem when interest rates were so low but, now that interest rates have risen, does the Minister think it time that the regulators of those industries took a keener interest in the balance sheets of the regulated utilities?
The noble Lord raises a very good point. Undoubtedly, mistakes were made in how water companies reacted over the past 10 or so years, when interest rates were very low. Now that interest rates have risen, so have the costs of the borrowings, which have created a number of difficult financial implications for them. However, we all hope that interest rates are falling.