My Lords, the amendments in this group are all to Clause 78 and would place obligations directly on the water companies and others concerned with drainage and sewerage management. In some ways, of course, this is a repeat of the interesting debate we have just had on the new government clause, but it is essential to strengthen the duties placed directly on the water companies. Otherwise, there will always be a doubt in law—I am not a lawyer—as to whether the Secretary of State or one or another agency, or one of the water companies, is ultimately responsible for compliance.
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At this point, I would like to thank the Minister for seeing the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, and me last week, which he mentioned in the earlier group. We were very grateful for his time.
Amendment 162 in my name, signed by the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, places on the water companies an immediate obligation to improve their sewerage systems each year. Without a requirement for immediate and continuous improvement, I fear that the water companies will devise proposals which will stretch out into the future. This improved clause will in turn put pressure on Ofwat to authorise expenditure and to agree methods for financing the necessary improvements.
On this point of paying for these improvements, I should perhaps briefly repeat part of what I said at Second Reading. I was dismayed by the Minister’s estimate in the previous debate on the total cost of renewing our sewerage infrastructure, which he said would be many hundreds of billions of pounds. Of course, I do not quite understand where that figure came from, but I recognise that it is a very large capital investment which is required, and it will have to be paid for from a combination of sources. These could include government grants, long-term borrowing, reduction of dividend payments for a number of years—paid by the water companies—and increasing water charges for both domestic and commercial consumers. This will be a green investment, with an immediate benefit for the environment and for all wildlife, not to mention human health as well.
For the reasons that I have just given, I also strongly support Amendment 162A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Cameron.
My Amendment 163 adds a new paragraph to subsection (3) of the new Section 94A introduced by Clause 78. This would require the water companies, in their management plans, to address the impact of sewage discharges on the quality of river water. I have not yet read anything which persuades me that water companies do take full account of what their discharges are doing to water quality in rivers. The second and third paragraphs inserted by Amendment 163 would place a legal obligation on water companies to register and publish not just storm overflows but other discharges from sewage treatment works. These are, unfortunately, all too frequent. The legal obligations placed on them will force the companies—and others whom the Water Industry Act 1991 described as “sewerage
undertakers”—to comply with the law, and to invest the necessary funds to release us from the horrendous curse of sewage discharges into rivers.
These two amendments will place such a strong legal duty on companies that they will have to negotiate with Ofwat, the Secretary of State and the Treasury how they may comply with these obligations imposed on them by law. I realise that all this does place a heavy charge on the water companies, but surely this is no greater than the large investment required of motor manufacturers who must invest in new technology to comply with the ban from 2030 of the sale of petrol and diesel engine motor cars.
I also wish to support in this group a number of amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, and others. The Government have not chosen to table their own amendment to Clause 78, but I hope that the Minister will agree that all these various amendments will improve the Bill. They will help to achieve what I believe both the Minister and Rebecca Pow in the other place would want from this Bill. I beg to move.