Water Bill to end social tariff postcode lottery – but EFRA presses for urgent reform

Baroness Hayman of Ullock secured support from across the Lords last week for government amendments to the Water (Special Measures) Bill introduced in the Commons, providing for consistent protections for vulnerable customers who will struggle to pay forthcoming water bill increases.

Amendment 4, and consequential amendment 8, were introduced by MPs to make provision for “consistent support for water consumers right across the country, replacing the current postcode lottery of existing support schemes, which vary from company to company,” Baroness Hayman said.

She continued: “The new clause will allow for the possible automatic enrolment of vulnerable customers on to future schemes, enabling them to get the full support to which they are entitled without having to proactively apply. This will be enabled through improved information sharing between public authorities and water companies.”

Details will be established through consultation and secondary legislation. In the meantime existing schemes will continue to operate.

Baroness Hayman added: “We remain firm on our expectation that water companies will hold themselves to account for their public commitment to end water poverty by 2030 and will work with the sector to ensure appropriate measures are taken to deliver this.”

Following the first session of its ‘Reforming the water sector’ inquiry, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee wrote to water minister Emma Hardy seeking reassurance of prompt action. The letter said: “We welcome these amendments but these do not commit the Government to reform. We ask that the minister puts on record their commitment to developing a single social tariff and continuing to remove all barriers to its implementation as soon as possible.”

The letter pressed Hardy to “set out a timetable for developing a single social tariff to come into effect in 2025” and to reply by 27 February with an outline of steps that Government is taking to increase awareness of the support available as well as how it is working to develop an auto-enrolment system for social tariffs. 

Elsewhere in the Lords’ discussions, Baroness Hayman steered the Government’s response to other Commons’ amendments. These included accepting amendments 5-7, which will see Ofwat’s duty to set rules on remuneration and governance brought into force speedily on Royal Assent, rather than through the use of commencement regulations; and accepting amendment 3, which ensures the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales can recover the costs associated with monitoring and enforcing water company implementation of their Pollution Incident Reduction Plans.