Water White Paper Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Jess Brown-Fuller
Main Page: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)Department Debates - View all Jess Brown-Fuller's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(1 day, 10 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Emma Reynolds
I admire my hon. Friend for swimming in the sea at all times of the year, by the sound of it. This new approach, the overhaul we are announcing in the White Paper, will establish a more powerful, integrated regulator that has more teeth, and a system that puts an end to the water companies marking their own homework—a system in which there is nowhere to hide for poor performance.
Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)
Last year, Southern Water’s chief executive saw their pay double to over £1 million a year, while my constituents in Chichester face rising water bills, sewage outflows that continue for days at a time and the continuing over-abstraction of our chalk streams. What are the Government going to do about these water companies that are evading the bonus ban? Does she agree that a public interest model is the overhaul that we actually need?
Emma Reynolds
As I said, we have already blocked 10 company bosses from taking £4 million-worth of bonuses. I am urging them to respect both the spirit and the letter of the law, and Ofwat is considering further action to hold these companies to account.