§ 47. Mr. WilshireTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the new measures of protection the water consumer will now have available as a result of the completion of water privatisation.
§ Mr. HowardThe Water Act 1989 established a new regulatory framework to accompany privatisation which will ensure the protection of customers in respect of the quality and standard of service they receive and the price they pay.
These measures include the establishment of a new National Rivers Authority, separate from the companies, with direct responsibility for the health of the water environment and regulation of environmental standards, and the introduction of a new drinking water inspectorate which will help ensure that the new legal standards for drinking water quality are met.
A new independent regulator of the water and sewerage industry, the director general of water services has been appointed. His main tasks are to enforce the new system of economic regulation of the industry and to protect the interests of customers.
Companies will be subject to a new system of price control. Customers' interests will be protected in respect of the charges they pay as these will be limited in the first instance by the K factors set by the Secretary of State. It will be the director general's responsibility to ensure that these K factors continue to reflect correctly the obligations imposed on the companies. He will also have a duty to ensure that the prices fixed by the companies are fair between different classes of customers, so that domestic and industrial customers both pay their fair share.
The director general will also be responsible for monitoring the companies' performance in providing satisfactory levels of customer service and for ensuring that they comply with the conditions under which they are appointed. These provide amongst other things that the companies prepare and publish codes of practice for customers setting out the services to be provided and to publish codes of practices on disconnections and on leakage. A guaranteed standards scheme has been established setting out certain standards for day-to-day relations between companies and domestic customers. If standards are not met then customers will be entitled to a payment or credit of £5. In addition companies are required to prepare asset management plans and submit them to the director general. This provides an assurance to customers that companies have made long-term plans for the maintenance of their underground assets and for the expenditure and investment required to maintain and improve their systems.
Customer service committees will be established to represent customers' interests in each of the ten regions. The CSC's, who will report to the director-general, will be able to investigate complaints and report on any matter which appears to them to affect customer's interests.
Privatisation will also provide a spur to greater efficiency and thus benefit the consumer.
§ 92. Mr. Brandon-BravoTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the total value of the planned investment programme over the next 10 years of the privatised water companies in England and Wales.
§ Mr. HowardThe estimated investment expenditure by the 10 newly privatised water and sewage businesses in716W England and Wales, required by the programmes of which account was taken by the Secretaries of State in setting the initial levels of K, is £24.6 billion in prices prevailing at November 1989.