Water Bills

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

It is important that every water company does everything it can to support vulnerable customers. Like all businesses, some are better than others. We are working with water companies to try to ensure that they all come up to the same high standards that we expect. We know that some companies have committed to supplement support with contributions from shareholders’ profits between 2025 and 2030. Ideally, it would be good if all companies were prepared to do that.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, given the failure of the regulator to control these water companies, is it not about time that we had a new regulator that would look after the public?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

This takes me right back to the Water (Special Measures) Bill, where this was discussed in some depth. The simple answer to my noble friend is that this is something that the water commission, which is making good progress under Sir Jon Cunliffe, will look at and will be central to the outcome for the future of the water industry, because there is great dissatisfaction with the way in which the water regulator has managed things in the past. Certainly, that is something that will be central to the water commission’s investigations.