§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what his Department estimates the severance costs will be to the water industry, or to any other body covering these costs of breaking up the water industry into private companies and a National Rivers Authority; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MoynihanNo information is yet available. Following Royal Assent to the Public Utility Transfers and Water Charges Act, water authorities have been asked to provide outline schemes of organisation on the separation of their businesses into a utility and NRA component. These will identify, inter alia, any costs of the necessary reorganisation. The National Rivers Authority Advisory Committee will be scrutinising these restructuring proposals very carefully.
§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what powers the National Rivers Authority will have with regard to monitoring and influencing levels of capital expenditure by privatised water companies on their assets.
§ Mr. MoynihanRegulatory decisions taken by the National Rivers Authority in respect of abstraction and impounding licences and discharge consents may influence levels of capital expenditure by privatised water companies. The expenditure needed will be taken into account by the Director General of Water Services in reviewing the prices which companies may charge their customers. In addition, the NRA will have an interest in the costs which companies incur in maintaining and operating river-regulating reservoirs, for which the NRA will pay them a charge.