§ Mr. HealeyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement about progress with the review of utility regulation.[36623]
§ Mrs. BeckettWater, energy and telecommunications are among the essentials of everyday life. The public expect and have a right to an efficient supply of these services, on fair terms. The Government are determined to ensure that the regulatory framework delivers this.
That is why I announced a review of regulation of the gas, water, electricity and telecommunications utilities on 30 June 1997. I am today publishing the results of this review in a Green Paper, "A Fair Deal for Consumers: Modernising the Framework for Utility Regulation".
Effective regulation should ensure that the consumer comes first. It should do this by providing incentives to innovate and improve efficiency; by driving competition to push service standards up and prices down; by protecting consumers where the discipline of competition is insufficient; and by providing a framework which will ensure that these industries contribute to a better environment and quality of life, capable of being shared by all sectors of society, and by future generations.
The privatised utilities were sold too cheaply, and price controls set by the previous Government on privatisation were too lax. The result was a bad deal for consumers and for taxpayers. The Windfall Tax put right the mistakes of the past. It is time now to learn lessons from the existing regulatory regime—both its strengths and its weaknesses—to ensure that consumers are better served in future. We need to anticipate changes in market structures such as the development of multi-utility companies, the rapid emergence of competition in energy supply, and the impact of liberalisation in telecommunications. We also need to build confidence in the regulatory system by improving the transparency, consistency and accountability of the process.