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Water and Sewerage (South-west)

I am extremely grateful. I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for intervening. He is very generous. I totally agree with what he is saying. This is long overdue and most welcome. But would he not concede that historic costs involved pre-privatisation would have had to be paid for by the taxpayer anyway, to do with the infrastructure work of South West Water—the Victorian ducts and so forth? Those costs would have had to have been met by the taxpayer in some way, shape or form, regardless of privatisation.