LABOUR MPs in East Lancashire have condemned North West Water and Norweb's plans to cut 620 jobs, and electricity unions claim it could lead to safety worries for customers.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope labelled their decision disgraceful. He said: "Once again United Utilities is putting profits before people. If it can't put profits before the consumer, it will put profits before the workforce instead."

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice said the company had made massive profits over the years and was now putting profits before people's jobs.

He said: "They are quite clearly determined to continue to make huge sums of money and treat their customers as milch cows." Electricity workers from across the North West met in Blackpool yesterday for an Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union conference about the wave of job losses from the industry, including the 200 jobs lost from United Utilities's electricity distribution business.

AEEU officer Dougie Rooney said the redundancies would mean worse services for consumers.

He said: "The network will not be maintained as well as it should be. Consumers need to know they have a safe reliable service they can depend on."

United Utilities, which owns the businesses, said the job losses across the North West were the result of Ofwat's ruling that they must lower customers' water bills.

Nigel Evans, Ribble Valley MP and vice-chairman of the Conservative Part, said it was alarming that Ofwat's decision to cut customers' bills should prevent the company providing a service to the customers.

He said: "It may be a privatised company but it is a public utility and the regulators need to allow it to provide the services it should."

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