During Consideration of Lords Message to the Water (Special Measures) Bill this week, Shadow Water Minister Dr Neil Hudson MP urged the Government to accept the Opposition’s constructive amendments to the Water (Special Measures) Bill, to clean up our water industry.
Dr Hudson defended amendments to the Bill made by the Conservative Opposition which would have required Ofwat to create rules around financial reporting as part of its remuneration and governance rules it will be obligated to draft, and to allow Parliament to vote on any rules created by Ofwat.
The Government instead only passed amendments that would make Ofwat require water companies to publish information relating to borrowing and review this, and to clarify that guidance on these remuneration rules would come into force seven days after the guidance was provided to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but avoided allowing Parliament to vote on any draft guidance.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill has been the Labour Government’s response to ongoing issues surrounding the water industry that have come to the fore in recent years, such as storm overflows polluting precious waterways and water companies raising Bills, all at the expense of excessive bonuses and dividends for water bosses.
As Dr Hudson outlined in that Debate and has done as lead Shadow Minister on the front bench throughout the passage of the Bill, the Bill copies many measures already introduced by the previous Conservative Government, such as bans on bonuses for water company executives that break pollution law.
The Government also rejected amendments throughout the passage of the Bill in Parliament that would have ensured water companies take steps to be financially resilient by allowing limits on the amounts they can borrow, mandated water company fines pay for restoration projects that improve water quality including chalk streams and made customer bills be reduced to an equal amount to any fines imposed for water companies that fail to meet their environmental duties.
Following the debate, Dr Hudson commented:
“While the Conservatives support the Water (Special Measures) Bill that continues our long-term work on improving our water system, we will continue to hold the Government to account to ensure they now deliver a proper plan for water quality.”
“It is disappointing that this Labour Government chose not to accept our constructive amendments for the sake of playing politics, while the Third Party, the Liberal Democrats, voted against it at a critical final stage, when they failed to act on the issue at earlier parliamentary stages. I will do my utmost as Shadow DEFRA Minister to ensure the situation moving forward is improved, so that we improve our precious waters and hold water companies to account.”
You can see the speech in full at:
Hansard -
Www.parliamentlive.tv from 14:03:35
