HC Deb 04 June 1996 vol 278 cc409-10W
18. Mr. John Marshall

To ask the Secretary of State of the Environment if he will make a statement about water supplies in London. [29789]

Mr. Robert B. Jones

Most of London receives its public water supplies from Thames Water, although some of the outer London boroughs are supplied by Three Valleys Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water or North Surrey Water. The quality of the public water supply is very high. The Environment Agency's recent report to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, published on 1 May, states that water resource problems are not expected in the Thames Water and North Surrey Water areas this summer, whatever the weather. In the other companies' areas, no restrictions are anticipated given a normal summer although hosepipe and inessential use bans may possibly become necessary in parts of these areas if the summer is very hot and dry.