Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
by Megan Darby
The government is not acting fast enough on unsustainable abstraction or metering. That was the key message of an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee inquiry into the Water White Paper.
Its report welcomed plans to increase competition in the water sector, but said government proposals would not deliver a well-functioning retail market.
MPs also called for firm action on bad debt and a more proactive approach to supporting poor customers.
Committee chair Anne McIntosh said: “We heard persuasive evidence about the environmental damage unleashed by over-abstraction. The government’s current plans – to reform the abstraction regime by the mid- to late 2020s – will not take effect rapidly enough given that rivers are already running dry.”
The lack of a target to increase levels of metering was described as “extremely disappointing”.
“It’s hard to see how the White Paper’s call for water to be managed as a precious resource can be reconciled with the lack of any clear target to increase metering levels,” said McIntosh.
On plans to allow non-domestic customers to choose their supplier, the committee recommended government “should not delay reforms because of an over-cautious approach to investor confidence”.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) should open the Anglo-Scottish retail market three years after getting the necessary legislation passed, it said. That is later than Ofwat’s initial suggestion of April 2015, but potentially sooner than the Scottish regulator’s advised date of April 2017.
The report urged the government to implement without delay legislation to help tackle “simply unacceptable” levels of bad debt. Defra is considering a voluntary alternative, which was roundly criticised by the sector as unlikely to work.
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 6 July 2012.
Get Utility Week’s expert news and comment – unique and indispensible – direct to your desk. Sign up for a trial subscription here: http://bit.ly/zzxQxx
Please login or Register to leave a comment.