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Water giant should 'get on' and cut bills
Lancashire's water company may appeal against a ruling which would see water bills fall for the next five years across the county.
The chief executive of United Utilities yesterday said his company will study new price limits laid down by regulator Ofwat in "great depth" before deciding whether to appeal to the Competition Commission.
But a Labour MP today demanded that the firm "stop posturing" and accept the Ofwat decision.
Publishing its decisions on what firms can charge Ofwat ruled that a typical UU bill will fall by 10 to 364 by 2015, before inflation. Ofwat said one part of its price deal with water firms – known as the final determination – was that they must invest more than 22bn during the five years across the industry.
Water companies said investment was threatened and UU chief executive Philip Green hinted at an appeal. He said: "Water companies have two months to decide whether or not to accept the determination, or whether to appeal to the Competition Commission.
"We will use this period to study the determination details in depth. We do not anticipate making an announcement on our decision before January 2010 at the earliest."
Mr Green's statement led to a curt response from Chorley Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle. He told the LEP: "It's time United Utilities woke up. The public are struggling, we are in the middle of a recession.
"They should stop looking to the shareholders and look to serve their customers during difficult times and reduce their bills. Bite the bullet, get on with it, stop posturing."
South Ribble MP David Borrow said UU should not cut back on its plans to improve infrastructure.
He said: "People in my patch will expect them to keep changes to their capital programme to a minimum and look for savings in other parts of the organisation."
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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