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Water (Special Measures) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I rise briefly to support my noble friend Lady McIntosh of Pickering. The Minister will be aware that, both at Second Reading and in Committee, I raised matters of capacity where sewage and rainwater mix—run-off from roofs, roads or wherever. In Committee, I quoted some case law that shows that the capacity of the sewers to cope with both should already be taken into consideration. I hope that, when she responds, she will assure us that she has asked for that case law to be investigated, because it may well be helpful in this case.

6.30 pm

I conclude simply by saying that it is not only in the sewers that the waters are mixed. My home in Devon, a very old house, was flooded twice eight years apart, with three feet of water through the ground floor of a house that was originally built in the 1700s. Very old houses, often without cavity walls, do not like soaking up all that water. When the rain comes down, you leave your home that day and do not come back for six months. When that happens once, it is bad enough, but, like me, many people around the country will know the experience when the capacity is not sufficient. Nothing brings a community together more than knowing that, when you are wading around in three feet of water on your ground floor, all the sewage from your neighbours is mixed in and floating around your furniture.