COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 13 November 2003)

§ Lord Whitty

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 80.I shall speak also to Amendment No. 81 and Amendments Nos. 83 to 155. Most of these amendments are technical or drafting amendments, which do not have an effect on policy or any wider implications.

However, Amendment No. 90 presents a change of policy in response to a Back-Bench amendment in another place, which was widely supported. The government amendment also gained support from all parties in the other place. Noble Lords will recall that the issue of private sewers was also raised by the noble Lord, Lord Livsey, and the noble Baroness, Lady 1701 Miller, at earlier stages and their amendments were intended to address the problems caused by private sewers. It may be of reassurance to note that the new clause provides for regulations to be subject to affirmative procedure. While this is necessarily a broad enabling power, it will be subject to that procedure.

The reason that this power is necessary is that there is a growing concern about the very serious problems faced by householders whose properties are connected to a private sewer. It is estimated that about 50 per cent of domestic properties are connected to private sewers in one form or another. Many householders are often unaware that their property is connected to a private sewer or that they are responsible for its maintenance and repair—sometimes directly and sometimes jointly with others—and remain unaware until a problem occurs.

The difficulties include how to establish the ownership of and responsibility for the maintenance of private sewers; the unwillingness of some owners to accept their responsibilities and the costs involved; owners and occupiers being unable to afford the high cost of repairs; and sewer flooding in emergency situations from private sewers.

A consultation paper on private sewers was published on 1st July and set out these problems. As noble Lords will recall, the consultation process had not come to an end when the issue was last discussed in this House. It did come to an end, however, during Committee stage in another place. Although the responses are still being considered in detail, the initial indications are that around 85 per cent of respondents are in favour of a change of ownership of private sewers. Of that number, a vast majority feel that sewerage undertakers are best placed to take on that responsibility.

Therefore, although the Government have not come to any detailed conclusions on the best way forward, it would be a wasted opportunity if this Bill were not used to enable us to take action in regulations to tackle the misery caused by this problem. The Government are committed to finding the best solution to this problem. We will be producing regulations under Amendment No. 90 in order to do so. The clause gives the Secretary of State power to make regulations allowing for schemes for the adoption of private sewers. I emphasise that the amendment introduces an enabling power and does not imply the automatic transfer of all private sewers to sewerage undertakers. I hope that the House will recognise that that amendment is an important change which I think can be widely supported. As I said, the rest of the amendments in this group are technical.