Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Bill

I wholeheartedly associate myself with the final comments of the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr Offord). I welcome the Bill, and I thank the Minister and the Secretary of State for introducing it. As my hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State said, it goes a small way towards righting the terrible injustice that was done as a result of how the water industry was privatised, particularly in the south-west, in 1989. As other Members have said, other people deserve credit, too. I thank the excellent public servant Anna Walker, whose year-long review in 2008-09 made recommendations, some of which the Government are now implementing. I also thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), who was the Secretary of State who commissioned the Walker review. I also thank somebody else who has been named by a number of Members today—my colleague the former Member for Plymouth Sutton, Linda Gilroy. Linda worked tirelessly as a leading member of the all-party water group during her 13 years in this place. She was like a terrier with a bone on the issue—I remember seeing two Prime Ministers and several other Ministers scurrying away from her whenever they saw her approaching them in the Division Lobby, because they knew she would pin them against the wall to talk about water prices. She brought not just great persistence but huge expertise to the subject, and she helped to change minds. It is no exaggeration to say that without Linda Gilroy's contribution, the Walker review would never have happened. We might have got there in the end, but we would have been much less far down the road. It is gratifying that Members in all parts of the House have paid tribute to her, because she is no longer in this place to smile on her legacy. I would be grateful if the Minister could answer a couple of questions. What will happen at the end of the next comprehensive spending review period? Will further legislation be needed if the £50 rebate is to be extended beyond the next CSR period; and if so, how will the legislative mechanism be put in place to do that? Given that when the Labour Government considered this issue in the past there was a problem with European state aid rules, is he satisfied that there will not be such a problem with what the Government are doing? Why are the Government implementing only part of the Walker review? Will the Minister assure us that the other bits will be implemented when the Government bring an all-singing, all-dancing water Bill to this House? I am a little disappointed that we will apparently not get such a Bill in the forthcoming Queen's Speech, but I hope that we will during this Parliament. That is absolutely vital because, as the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) said very clearly and convincingly, there is a desperate need for root-and-branch reform of the water industry. The £50 cut in bills in the south-west is extremely welcome, but our bills will still be the highest in the country, and the cut will already have been wiped out by the time we get it owing to the increases in the current and forthcoming financial years, with a 5.7% increase in April.