Shadow water minister Angela Smith said the Water Bill was a “missed opportunity” for the government to introduce a “national affordability scheme” and set a UK-wide standard for social tariffs.
She said: “There still remains, even now, a major hole at the heart of the Bill and at the heart of the government’s water policy, and that is the absence of any serious attempt to tackle the impact rising water bills are having on household budgets.”
Despite this, Labour MPs supported the amendments to the Water Bill, including provisions for retail exits in the non-domestic market.
Water minister Dan Rogerson, dismissed Labour’s call for a national scheme, and stated these proposals would force blanket changes of different water companies in different areas and could result in “perverse impacts” on water bills.
On the acceptance of the retail exit clause, Rogerson said the amendments put in place safeguards to protect customers and that they “allow us to move forward on the potential on retail exit in a measured way”.
The water minister said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would launch a full public consultation to establish the regulations for voluntary retail exit.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee chair Anne Macintosh also welcomed the Commons’ approval of the Lord’s amendments to the bill, saying the allowing voluntary retail exit “would allow the market to function as a competitive market” and it would “facilitate entry into the water and sewerage retail market”.