§ Mr. Clifton-BrownTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) which high-profile sites in need of water quality improvements in addition to EU directive requirements will be included in the Director General of Water Services' review of price limits for water companies;
(2) what provision is being made for protecting river sites of special scientific interest from deterioration due to sewage effluent during the 1995–2000 investment programme for Water Services plc.
§ Mr. GummerWe have informed the Director General of Water Services that, in addition to spending required to meet existing obligations including those imposed by European Community directives, we consider that in the period 1995 to 2000 a further £522.3 million of spending specifically to improve the quality of rivers should be enabled to proceed, including in Wales. He has told me that he will take this spending into account in determining the new price limits which he is to announce on 28 July. The distribution of the additional spending between sewerage company areas is as in the table. It represents guidance on the extent to which the National Rivers Authority will, in the period 1995 to 2000, require additional expenditure by water and sewerage plcs by tightening sewage works discharge consents so as to bring about further improvements in river quality, over and above improvements which will result from the existing obligations arising from European Community and domestic legislation. It will be for the NRA in consultation with the companies to determine the most cost-effective use of this expenditure. I expect, however, that it will include, inter alia, priority schemes to continue the improvement of water quality in the Mersey basin, the Aire and Calder242W catchment, the Norfolk Broads, and the Worcestershire Stour; and schemes to improve other rivers such as the Tame to the north-east of Birmingham, the Surrey Blackwater, the lower Nene, and the Hampshire Avon.
Company £million Thames 41 Wessex 18 South West — Anglian 42 Southern 10 North West 130 Northumbrian — Yorkshire 60 Severn Trent 194 Welsh 27.3