Water Charges (Hansard, 16 February 1994)

§ 5. Mr. Nicholls
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he last met the chairman of South West Water to discuss the basis of water charges.

§ Mr. Atkins
My right hon. Friend has not yet had the opportunity to meet the chairman of South West Water. I hope to do so shortly.

§ Mr. Nicholls
As and when my hon. Friend meets the chairman, I hope that he will take the opportunity to tell him about the indignation and anger that have been expressed during the past four years by hon. Members who represent the west country at the unsustainable level of water charges in the west country, which have continued to rise unabated. When does my hon. Friend expect the valuable initiatives taken in Europe to try to cope with those charges to bring about some decrease?

§ Mr. Atkins
My hon. Friend is one of my hon. Friends who have led many delegations to see Ministers, former ones and current ones, to discuss with us the problems of his constituents. I know that he will understand that we are doing all that we possibly can to alleviate the pressures on South West Water and on my hon. Friend's constituents. What is apparent, from what my hon. Friend knows and from what he and his colleagues have said to my right hon. Friend and to me, is that Opposition Members believe that we should implement directives on quality in some areas but are not prepared to listen to the concerns so adequately and properly represented by my hon. Friend and others on behalf of their constituents about those increases in charges.

§ Mr. Jamieson
Is the Minister aware of the deep concern expressed in Devon and Cornwall by ordinary water users about the fact that their bills are due to double in the next four years to more than £500 a year on average? Is he also aware that people in the area are appalled by the synthetic concern expressed by people like the hon. Member for Teignbridge (Mr. Nicholls) who, after all, voted in the House for higher bills?

§ Mr. Atkins
I do not believe that we need any lessons in synthetic protest from Opposition Members.

§ Mr. Matthew Taylor
Will the Minister accept that it is now well over a year since the Prime Minister came to the 934 west country and promised to cut bills? Since then, bills have continued to increase. When the bills for next year shortly fall through their letter boxes, people will find that they have gone up by almost a third since the Prime Minister made that promise. How long do they have to wait until their bills are a reasonable level?

§ Mr. Atkins
The hon. Gentleman knows full well, because he has also had a meeting with the Secretary of State—incidentally, he broke the information on that to the press before it was properly made available, but, frankly, that is typical of the Liberal party—that the situation is quite clear. We have understood the problem faced by people in the south-west, which is due to the fact that that region has a larger number of beaches than other parts of the United Kingdom. Is the hon. Gentleman expecting his hon. Friends in other parts of the country to subsidise the costs that his constituents are being asked to bear? If so, I should be extremely interested to learn his hon. Friends' response to that suggestion.