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Water companies ask MPs to let them build big The water industry last week urged government to clarify a clause in the Floods and Water Bill to allow water companies to bid for major infrastructure projects. As the Bill currently stands, water companies are required to competitively tender projects and procure the services of a third-party infrastructure service provider for major infrastructure. "The new proposals seem to exclude water companies from bidding for certain types of infrastructure, which have not been specified," Water UK deputy chief executive Phillip Mills told the Bill's Public Accounts Committee hearing. He said the government needed to define, subject to consultation, what infrastructure would be covered and that water companies would be allowed to bid. "There should be a level playing field, otherwise we are denying potential benefits to customers and to the environment by excluding water companies." Ofwat's director of finance and networks, Keith Mason, countered that the clause only affected "a very small number of very large projects", and that the intention was to "get the lowest possible and most advantageous price". He said that if companies were allowed to bid "they might skew the market, because an infrastructure project will be providing services to the incumbents" and this would disadvantage other bidders. Tony Smith, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, said that if the requirement led to a higher cost of capital, and therefore a higher price for customers, best value was unlikely to be achieved. Source: Utility Week © Faversham House Group Ltd 2010. News articles may be copied or forwarded
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