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Water Bills (South-West)

Thank you for those comments, Sir Nicholas. I have indeed had approaches from two Labour Members, and I think that some of my colleagues may also wish to speak, but they should let you know if that is the case. I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue, although, unfortunately, addressing Ministers on it is all too familiar. I have faced successive Ministers—both Labour and Conservative—in a large number of Adjournment debates over the years. Indeed, back in 1988 and 1989, I warned the then Conservative Government’s Ministers and MPs that privatisation would lead to unbearably high bills in the south-west, not least because the cutting off of the public and European Union funds that were needed to clean up beaches would leave the region to foot an unreasonable proportion of the national cost of those programmes. I was ignored, but when rates did rocket, I heard Conservatives claim that they had not seen it coming. That was probably the most decisive single issue that led to the loss of Conservative seats in our part of the country, so perhaps they should have listened. When I faced Labour Ministers on this issue in the past, I met them with a degree of sympathy about the difficulties of tackling that messy legacy. It was not Labour’s fault that the Conservatives radically underestimated the cost of cleaning up Britain’s beaches and left only a £1.5 billion so-called green dowry from the much larger proceeds of privatisation for what turned out to be a £6 billion job. They left bill payers to cover the difference, and used the receipts to cut taxes for the very wealthy. It is harder to excuse the fact that 10 years into the Labour Administration we are here again because the surface of the problem has not even been scratched, let alone the problem resolved. This is the fifth Liberal Democrat-initiated debate since Labour has been in government, and debates have also been initiated by Labour Members who made much the same case. I welcome the fact that they have been raising this issue.