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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 36586 on Water Companies: Infrastructure, what estimate he has made of the potential impact of each Direct Procurement for Customers scheme on the annual cost of water bills for households in Yorkshire.

Prior to entering into a DPC arrangement, Ofwat considers the value for money of delivering the project as a DPC and also the impact on customer bills. The impacts on customer bills are unlikely to be known until a procurement for a scheme has been run, when the capital and operational costs of the project will be better understood. Currently the estimates provided through the price review are not mature estimates and are likely to change as the projects develop.

Our initial indication based on pathfinder projects is that there could be savings for customers of between 6% and 40% by delivering a scheme through DPC.