Member

When the water company in question exits from special administration via either rescue, such as a debt restructuring, or transfer, such as a sale, it will be for the special administrator to determine the level of repayment, as per its statutory objectives. The level of reductions suffered by creditors in accordance with the repayment priorities is already clearly set down in statute. If noble Lords are wondering about creditors asking for debt to be repaid during the special administration regime, for example, the answer is that they cannot, because there is a moratorium on legal proceedings during an SAR, which takes away creditors’ ability to enforce debt repayments. On the other hand, employees have some protection by being able to recoup certain debts, such as unpaid wages, via the redundancy payments service. I hope that that helps to clarify some of those issues for the noble Baroness, and that she understands why we think the proposed new clause is unnecessary.