Water Bill

Let me pursue the point about South West Water. There is no doubt that it has made dramatic inroads into the problems around the coasts, but there is an issue with the privatisation in the first place. The customer base was far too small to sustain the work that needed to be done around those coasts. As a result, bill payers in the south west—here I disagree with the hon. Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon)—are paying an extraordinarily high amount for their water.