Alex Cunningham MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment, responding to the OFWAT report on affordability, said:

“It is clear from today’s OFWAT report that the Tory Government has failed to protect many of the country’s more vulnerable households in water poverty. 

“Whilst 1.8 million households already have access to a social tariff or other assistance scheme, there are still more than a million others who need help now.  Fourteen of the eighteen water companies have social tariffs, but most have failed to achieve their own targets for registering customers.

“With one in ten households spending more than five per cent of their income on water and sewerage services – the largest number people in work – it is time for Ministers to intervene, back OFWAT and demand that each company outlines exactly how they are going to meet their targets, overhaul the way they talk to their customers, provide information to them and ensure everyone who needs help gets it.”