Water companies offer apology for poor performance, With a Catch

Last week Water UK, the industry body who represent water companies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, issued an open apology for their continued poor performance on the sewage pollution issue.

Chairman of Water UK, Ruth Kelly, said: “The message from the water and sewage industry today is clear: we are sorry. More should have been done to address the issue of spillages sooner and the public is right to be upset about the current quality of our rivers and beaches.

“We have listened and have an unprecedented plan to start to put it right. This problem cannot be fixed overnight, but we are determined to do everything we can to transform our rivers and seas in the way we all want to see.”

In addition to the apology, the organisation promised to invest £10 billion into infrastructure by 2030 in a new ‘National Overflows Plan’, which they claim will make significant progress towards fixing the issue.

However, this apparent acknowledgement of remorse and an investment pledge were not all that they seemed.

It soon emerged that the £10 billion would ultimately be paid by the consumer through additional and incremental increases to our bills.

This follows a 7.5% increase to household water bills in April, an average of £31 per household, which was the biggest rise in decades, piling more misery on billpayers during the cost of living crisis.

To make matters worse, three days later it was reported that English water companies will pay £14.7 billion in dividends by 2030, nearly 50% more than would be invested in the same timeframe.

Our view is that this ‘apology’ was little more than a PR exercise, designed to mask a threat to further increase bills and line the pockets of overseas investment funds who view our water industry as an opportunity to profiteer, rather than a vital public service which impacts public health, the environment and local economy,

The privatisation of the water industry has failed and, although we do not claim that a return to public ownership would solve the sewage pollution crisis alone, it would put an end to ludicrous scenarios such as £25 billion of capital being split 60-40 between dividends and infrastructural investment, with private ownership snatching the larger share.

We already pay water companies to run this service and feel strongly that being asked to pay a second time, for a service which they have repeatedly failed to provide once, is an outrageous abuse of public trust and a demonstration that privatisation is no more than a government-backed Ponzi scheme.

If you agree, please sign and share our petition to renationalise the water industry by clicking here.