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Flood and Water Management Bill

I am delighted to speak to new clauses 16 and 17. In the spirit prevailing in the House today, I commend my hon. Friend the Minister on a near-exemplary performance and his willingness to listen, respond and improve the Bill. The House heard it from me first. I do not intend to spend long dealing with new clause 22—or, indeed, amendment 22—but I would like to point out that the new clause exemplifies the Minister's willingness to engage in debate. Some of us were tempted by the Liberal Democrat amendment moved in Committee, but common sense prevailed and we did not have a vote; the Minister was tasked to go away and think about how to introduce individual social tariffs as well as collective ones for voluntary organisations and so forth. That was the nub of the problem. It was not possible to say that we would treat fairly organisations such as the Scouts, important though they are, but have no willingness to understand the problems of individual customers. We are talking about some form of cross-subsidisation. As I said in Committee, we have to separate out those who cannot pay from those who will not pay—a growing problem in this industry. I hear what the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood) says about amendment 22, and I am pleased that he is not going to press it to a vote, but I seek further clarification of whether there has been some narrowing of the methodology that Ofwat will be asked to operate in dealing with cases referred to it where organisations feel that the water company they are paying is being unduly harsh in the charges imposed on them. I hope that the Minister will clarify the position in his summing-up as we have to nail this issue. He has done invaluable work on a thorny problem, but I hope that we can now move on and be absolutely clear that there is a mechanism whereby if a particular community group feels that it is being unfairly treated, it will have the wherewithal to go to Ofwat, complain and get some action against the relevant water company, particularly given the strong differential between different water companies, as I mentioned in Committee. If the Severn Trent model had been more widely followed, for example, some of the problems that we saw with United Utilities could have been overcome far more quickly. In being tabled at this time, new clauses 16 and 17 in no way move away from our discussions in Committee. However, new clause 16 lays down clearly a duty on the industry to provide skills and training for those who work in it. If I remember correctly, I heard the Minister rightly say that the water industry is not as advanced as the energy or other utility industries in respect of what it already does in that regard. New clause 16 is effectively designed to inform the regulator that water companies will have to demonstrate in detail how they are investing in the training and development of their employees.