But unions argue that lower bills can be financed out of their excessive profit margins and not by cutting

But unions argue that lower bills can be financed out of their excessive profit margins and not by cutting staff.Byatt's olive branch, Business, page 20. In July, Mr Byatt recommended an average reduction of 16.2 per cent. Since then, however, the Environment minister Michael Meacher has decided that the environmental programme to be funded by the industry will be slightly bigger than Mr Byatt had calculated.The biggest beneficiaries will be Welsh Water, Southern and Northumbrian, where bills next year will fall by significantly less than planned.Bills will also come down less than planned for customers of the smaller statutory water-only companies. City estimates suggest the cuts in dividend payments at some companies could be as high as 50 per cent.In July, Mr Byatt proposed a 14 per cent reduction in prices next year. The cuts are slightly less than Ian Byatt, of Ofwat, had planned to introduce because of increased environmental clean-up programmes ordered by the Government. But they will still wipe almost pounds 1bn from water company profits while the industry will also have to find pounds 8.5bn to fund a massive programme of improvements in drinking water quality and the cleanliness of beaches.The biggest cut in bills will be enjoyed by customers of Northumbrian Water, who will see the average annual charge fall by pounds 46 to pounds 198 - a reduction of 19 per cent.The smallest reduction will be for households in the Thames area, where bills will fall by pounds 26 from next April to pounds 182, equivalent to a cut of 11.7 per cent.Although the cuts are not as deep as those initially proposed by Mr Byatt in July, they are almost certain to force most water companies to reduce drastically dividend payments to shareholders. HOUSEHOLD WATER bills are to fall by an average of pounds 30 next year - a reduction of about 12 per cent - the industry regulator will announce today. The council said yesterday that the school was to close in 2001 and pounds 100,000 would be spent to raise standards and transfer pupils.Biggest gains, page 4;Leading article, Review page 3; Performance tables, inside Review.

"This is the result of the competitive market in schools where heads are seeking to recruit the best pupils."The bottom school at GCSE is Gillingham Community College in Medway where no pupil scored five or more top grades. They are usually already disaffected with life."David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the tables showed "a tale of two cities" with schools at the top doing better and better while a stubborn tail of under-achievement remained. The Department for Education said the number of pupils leaving without qualifications had fallen this year by 3000. John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: "It is very difficult for individual schools to solve a problem which may be more a matter for the police or social services."Because of league tables, schools face public criticism but these pupils rarely start out by being disaffected with school. For the first time, the tables give the proportion of pupils leaving each school at the age of 16 without a GCSE or the vocational equivalent. Nationally, 35,000 pupils are leaving without qualifications, about 6 per cent of the total.

THE TRUE SCALE of under-achievement among the most disadvantaged pupils is revealed today by government league tables showing that at more than 50 schools one in five pupils is leaving without any exam passes. At Merrywood School in Bristol, 39 per cent of pupils left this summer without a single qualification. If someone as morally threadbare as Lord Archer could fool the Conservative leader, then Mr Blair was in the clear. The Prime Minister, totting up Mr Hague's questions so far and calculating that he was nearly out of breath, decided to push his head beneath the waves.The Government was not taxing too much and spending too little, he said.

Its figures were exactly right: "Not a penny more, not a penny less."According to the Prime Minister's press secretary, it was not a joke, it was wit I am not sure about that but whatever it was, it worked.. "All we're trying to do is get a truthful answer out of the PM!" he exclaimed.At that there was an enormous cheer from Labour MPs - Mr Hague's recent track record in that sphere suggested they had absolutely nothing to fear. There are only so many times you can say: "That's simply not right," and "He's quite wrong," and "No, it isn't," before you begin to look helpless and defensive - whatever the truth of the matter.Mr Hague knows that and he plugged away until Mr Blair began to droop But then he made a mistake. "It is actually in the figures that we have published," he began lamely, before he was interrupted by laughter.Mr Blair never looks very convincing when he simply denies the figures that are fired at him from the Conservative benches.

Independent analysts all seemed to agree that the tax burden was rising, he said. Could the Prime Minister find anyone who agreed with him that it was falling?Mr Blair certainly could. Then he doggedly set out for the nearest thing that he could use as a liferaft, a large bale of fiscal statistics that had broken loose during the final plunge. "At least my jokes are read out," he replied; "his jokes are all in the Cabinet." It was scarcely up to last week's standard but it was spirited in the circumstances - the brave face of a man who finds himself up to his neck in freezing water but insists that actually, once you are used to it, it's rather refreshing.