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Flood and Water Management Bill

The debate has kicked us off very well indeed. As I expected, there has been a good debate on this part of the Bill. I shall try to deal in detail, but fairly rapidly, with some of the points that have been raised. I can give all hon. Members the assurances that they seek, including the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), who made a valid point about rushing ahead and whether we are pre-empting what might be the ideal. I think that I can give him the assurance he requires. I acknowledge that, as the hon. Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) has commented, the measures on social tariff have come late in the day, and I shall explain why. I hope that I can persuade her to join us on this matter and approach it in the same spirit that we have dealt with the rest of the Bill, because we have an opportunity here. Let me deal first with the question of why now. The hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood) talked about putting matters beyond doubt legally. That is the purpose of the measure, but this issue was specifically raised by Ofwat and others in our evidence sessions. In response to Committee members, they said that the impediment to moving on this matter was lack of clarity in the law. We knew that there was huge support for this approach in Committee, and my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) was right to say that I am a listening Minister. It has been a struggle to bring forward a proposal in time, but I pay tribute to my Bill team, who worked very hard. They spoke to stakeholders outside the House to try to get this right, and I think that we have something good. I do not want to legislate for the sake of it, but I believe that our proposals are broadly welcomed. To pick up the remarks from several hon. Members, including Labour Members, I should like to bring forward legislation rapidly when we return after the general election, if I am in a position to do so, and we have an opportunity in this debate to achieve a consensus on the matter. Why are we including provisions on social tariffs and bad debts, and not other Walker review recommendations? The review was tasked with looking at a number of wide-ranging and complex issues, which meant that it was published later than we initially hoped. We are amending the Bill to include provisions to tackle bad debt and, because of concerns raised on Second Reading, we have also introduced this provision on social tariffs. The social tariff measure was a firm recommendation in Anna Walker's interim report, and her final report said that it should be a priority. This is a timely opportunity to include it because, as has been noted, we need to act soon to help customers who are already facing real hardship. However, other recommendations in Anna Walker's report, and the Cave report that I mentioned previously, require a lot of further consideration. I assure the House that we will consult fully on them. Although it is still the Government's intention to bring forward any new legislation that is needed, I should point out that not all the recommendations in Anna Walker's report require legislation. In response to the question about businesses, I want to make it clear that the present wording is quite deliberate. We have been working very hard and burning the midnight oil to get it right. As I have made clear, part of the mechanism is that water companies will consult their customer bases before any scheme is implemented. That consultation will have to cover the acceptability of any cross-subsidies, as our guidance will make clear. We will, of course, consult properly on that guidance in the first place. The right hon. Member for Wokingham quite rightly had reservations about whether this provision should be brought forward now, but it is framed in such a way that it does not pre-empt Anna Walker, or the detail inherent in a proper consultation exercise. I am sure that he would support the idea that we should consult not only those who might benefit, but people who might be asked to carry the burden. The Consumer Council for Water made its concerns clear, and we framed our approach accordingly. We are not setting out specific proposals now, but ensuring that we have the power to consult and bring in such proposals at an appropriate time.