Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham has sent an open invitation to water-intensive industries to move to the North East and make the most of the abundant water supply on offer.
Alex made the invitation during a recent speech in the House of Commons on the Water Industry Financial Assistance Bill, where he also criticised the government for failing to take action against the excessive profits water companies make.
Almost 400,000 people in the north-east spend more than 3% of their income on water, and yet the Tory-led government has failed to take any action to cut water bills for hard working families, and instead it proposed to allow the Government, without any justification to provide tax payer money to private monopoly-market water companies – many owned by off shore pension funds.
Alex also spoke out in support of Labour introducing a new clause to the Bill to enable the introduction of national minimum standards for water company social tariffs, ensuring financial assistance to those most in need across the country. He also questioned proposals to pipe water from the North to the South.
Alex said in the House of Commons:
“The issue of water supply is extremely pressing given that huge areas of the south and east of England are suffering their worst drought in almost 35 years.
“With such an abundance of water, instead of transferring large amounts of water to the overcrowded and drought-ridden south, I strongly believe it would make both environmental and economic sense for water-intensive industries to move to the north-east.
“In recent years, Kielder water has come into its own, with underground springs ensuring that it always remains at a high level, regardless of the prevailing climate. That means that while the south of England is often forced to implement drought strategies and hosepipe bans, north-east England enjoys plentiful water supplies.
“Therefore I would like to take the opportunity to invite those who want a consistent and high-quality water supply to come to the north-east—industrialists, manufacturers, green revolution companies, call centres, breweries and individual people would all be made welcome in the region. My message to them is clear: ‘You need water; we’ve got it’”.
