Water Rate (Hansard, 28 February 1977)

§ 8. Mr. Cledwyn Hughes
asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will give an estimate of the average domestic water rate in Wales for the next financial year.

§ Mr. Alec Jones
The Welsh National Water Development Authority has fixed a water rate of £5 plus 17p in the pound of rateable value for 1977–78. The typical householder in the area with a domestic property of £120 rateable value will receive a water bill of £25.40.

§ Mr. Hughes
Taking account of the water rates in Wales before 1973, may I ask whether it is not deplorable that the hold-up of current legislation is depriving the ratepayers of Wales of much-needed relief? Will my hon. Friend give the House some indication about what the saving would be if the Bill now before the House were to become law in the near future?

§ Mr. Alec Jones
If the equalisation Bill had been implemented in April this year, it would have meant a transfer to the funds and resources of the Welsh National Water Development Authority of £3.6 million. What it really means is that the obstructive tactics of the Conservative Opposition in Committee have cost Wales £3½ million and that the average domestic water consumer's bill will be about £3.40 higher than it would otherwise have been.

§ Mr. Wigley
Will the Minister come clean and admit that because of the delay in bringing the Bill forward the Government are equally to blame for robbing Wales of £3½ million? Since there is a 12-month delay, will the hon. Gentleman say whether the Government will give a direct Exchequer subsidy to Wales to alleviate the very high bills we have had, since the Government have already earmarked some money to go to Wales for this purpose?

§ Mr. Alec Jones
The hon. Gentleman is completely mistaken. As he and the House know, it had been the Government's intention to introduce the Bill a week earlier, but the House decided, in accordance with custom, that it would adjourn its proceedings on the day the Bill was to be introduced as a mark of respect to the late Lord Avon. That was an extra delay which was out of the control of any Government. Had there been the will on the part of the Conservative Opposition, the Bill could have passed through Committee and would have been implemented this year.

§ Mr. Wyn Roberts
Will not the Minister admit that his right hon. and learned Friend's claim in the Liverpool Daily Post to have achieved a victory in the Cabinet by having the Bill at all was failed totally by the failure of the Government to introduce the Bill for Second Reading before 24th January? Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that some of his own hon. Friends are opposed to the Bill? By pressing this point, is not the Secretary of State threatening to make himself more of a Yorick than he is?

§ Mr. Alec Jones
My right hon. and learned Friend was quite correct when he said that it would have been possible to have got this piece of legislation through this House and the other place in time to be implemented this year had the Conservative Opposition been prepared to give any measure of support. I know that the hon. Gentleman voted for the Bill, but it was a typical example of trying to get the maximum political advantage out of an issue. A free vote in this Chamber, coupled with obstructionist tactics upstairs, has cost Wales dearly on this issue.

§ Mr. Lipton
Without expressing any view, either in favour or against, about the Bill, can my hon. Friend say how much London ratepayers have contributed towards the cost of water in Wales?

§ Mr. Alec Jones
The partial equalisation scheme, which this House passed by a large majority, meant exactly what it said. Any scheme of partial equalisation must mean that some will pay more and others will pay less. The burden on water consumers in Wales was unfair and could not be tolerated, and ought not to have been tolerated, by this House. As my hon. Friend knows, this meant that water charges in the Thames area would have gone up by 2p per week. That would have been a small price to have paid to iron out the injustices from which not only the people of Wales but other parts of England, like the South-West and many other areas, were also suffering.