Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, and the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan, for their contributions. Energywatch has obvious expertise and experience in dealing with very vulnerable customers, which was shown in the Energywatch example that was read out. Will that experience and expertise in dealing with these people be easily translated intothe new NCC, if there is to be this great body?This concerns really vulnerable people. The life-threatening situation of not having gas and electricity is matched only by not having water, which also life is threatening when not readily available. Those of us who are able to pay our energy and water bills do not give too much thought to this discrete body of people. I fear the sensitivity of that group of people; as the noble Lord said, they do not want to admit that they are in this situation. A case involving a 15 year-old girl living for a month without heat or hot water was mentioned. Is it possible to put that experience and expertise into an organisation which has never had dealings on that level? Obviously, it may have dealt with vulnerable customers who have fallen into debt, but these cases are life-threatening. This is probably the wrong time to interject, but we have to be very mindful of whether the Government are right to put Energywatch in this organisation.