Thames Water Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Yuan Yang
Main Page: Yuan Yang (Labour - Earley and Woodley)Department Debates - View all Yuan Yang's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(3 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Steve Reed
The point is that there is a market-led solution on the table and I expect Thames Water to follow through on that.
Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)
It is possible for an American private equity company to walk away from Thames Water, but my constituents cannot. When water company bosses fail, it is our residents who pay: in sewage discharged into rivers and in their crumbling pipes and drainage. I am therefore glad that the Government have taken bonuses off of failing bosses, but what more can the Government do to tilt incentives towards investment in our infrastructure so that my constituents get some relief?
Steve Reed
The problems that my hon. Friend points to are to do with a lack of investment throughout the entire period of the previous Government, so I was delighted that just before Christmas we secured a commitment to £104 billion of private sector investment. That is the single biggest investment in our water sector in its entire history and will be the second biggest private sector investment into any part of the economy under this Government. We are serious about clearing up the Conservatives’ sewage mess.