Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of introducing a single social tariff for water.

As the Secretary of State stated during the House of Lords inquiry into the work of Ofwat, Defra is minded not to introduce a single social tariff scheme due to the complexities involved with a national scheme, as well as due to legislative timetables, which would mean we would not be able to introduce a single social tariff to align with the start of the next price review – 1 April 2025.

However, I am very mindful that consumers are concerned about their bills. My officials continue to explore options to improve existing social tariff arrangements, focussing on improving consistency and fairness across existing regional social tariff schemes - a sensible and pragmatic approach given time constraints.