Southern Water underspent on its first and second asset management plans. We pressed very hard for them to spend the money saved on quality improvement. When Sir Ian Robinson, chief executive of Scottish Power, replied to Ms Gidley he said that the issue was complex and that leaking private pipes were in part to blame. We have to operate within a budget. Our own is fixed by Ofwat.
Additional needs have to be carefully prioritised.
Ofwat rejected the suggestion that its price limits could be blamed for preventing investment. Big programmes of investment were required to meet environmental needs, he said, and Ofwat accepted that companies had to set priorities. Southern Water's managing director, Stuart Derwent, said the problem was complex, with responsibility falling on several agencies. Many of the areas where ground water used to soak away in the past had been built on or Tarmacked over. As soon as you get flooding you are bound to get infiltration of the sewage system.