HC Deb 05 November 1975 vol 899 cc390-1
14. Mr. Ridley

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review the system whereby water authorities can refuse to carry out a sewerage scheme unless "requisitioned" by the local authority concerned.

The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (Mr. Denis Howell)

This is one of the matters which will be considered in the full review of the water industry which my right hon. Friend expects to initiate in the New Year.

Mr. Ridley

I do not urge greater expenditure on sewerage when already expenditure by the Department of the Environment is far too high, but does not the hon. Gentleman agree that it is undesirable that responsibility should be passed from the water authority to the council and back again? Should not there be one authority responsible for the provision of sewerage schemes and one authority only?

Mr. Howell

If the hon. Gentleman is not urging additional expenditure, he is certainly urging a switch in existing priorities.

Mr. Ridley

No.

Mr. Howell

With great respect, he must be. He is urging that when water authorities find it impossible to carry out certain sewerage schemes, the decision should not be left to the requisitioning arrangements in the Water Act 1973, for which he voted. That must mean a switch in existing priorities, which at the moment are new housing, industrial development and the maintenance of public health standards. Those priorities must remain for the time being. By the Water Act local authorities were enabled to requisition sewerage schemes, as had always been the case with water schemes, and the two systems were brought into line.

Mr. Cryer

Will my hon. Friend assure the House that an improvement in representation on water authorities will not await a full review of the water industry? Is he aware that water authorities are subject to criticism because they wield extensive powers without representation from the local authorities that impose rates decided by the water authorities? Will my hon. Friend take drastic and urgent action to ensure that large local authorities are properly and adequately represented on water authorities?

Mr. Howell

More than 50 per cent. of the representation on all regional water authorities is made up of local authority nominees directly elected by the local authorities involved. To change that system would require legislation. I cannot undertake to produce legislation in advance of the full inquiry that we are conducting and our study of the results. A consultative document—either a Green Paper or a White Paper—will be published early in the New Year. Like my hon. Friend, we are anxious to have the considered view of everyone about what arrangements should apply in future.

Mr. Spearing

Does my hon. Friend agree that one objection to the Water Act is in respect of the smaller number of members of each regional water authority? Would not a modest change in the numbers meet the problems referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Mr. Cryer) and accord with the wishes of most people?

Mr. Howell

That is one reason why we opposed the Water Act. The management of water on a water basin principle involves very large areas, much larger than any previously known units of local government. The difficulty is to equate the principle of managing the water cycle in that way with any form of local government democracy.