This is the best summary I could come up with:
Water firms say the increases will fund £100bn of spending over the period, which will include replacing ageing, leaking pipes and reducing sewage discharges into rivers and seas.The latest bill hike demands come ahead of a crucial meeting this week when the industry regulator Ofwat will decide what companies can charge between 2025 and 2030.Water companies have been heavily criticised for widespread leaks and the amount of sewage being discharged, which critics have blamed on under-investment in the country’s infrastructure.Fewer than one in six customers considered water bill rises affordable, according to a survey Ofwat required the companies to conduct of their own customers.The regulator is unlikely to approve the bill rises in full, but the BBC understands it is expected to agree to bill rises of at least half the amount the companies are requesting, and in some cases considerably more than half.Mike Keil, chief executive of the CCW, said bill rises were “going to come as a massive surprise to people”.
“People do want to see improvements, they do understand that takes investment, but I think the scale of what’s being proposed here is going to come as a real shock and this is why water companies have double down on their efforts to explain what people are getting for their money,” he said.
Costs will vary depending on a property’s rateable value
The latest figures from the CCW incorporate changes from the companies, the regulator Ofwat and other bodies including the Environment Agency since their five year plans for the period 2025-2030 were first submitted last October.The proposed increases include a forecasted inflation rate of 2%, which is in line with the Bank of England’s target.There is a very wide range of proposed bill rises, which reflects the very different challenges facing companies in different parts of England and Wales.The very high figure at Southern reflects major upgrades to water infrastructure that has had serious problems.Katy Taylor, Southern Water’s chief customer officer, said the company shared “everyone’s concerns about rising payments”, but added “the water needs of our water-stressed region pose a unique set of challenges which require significant investment”.She said the cash from higher bills would be used to “reduce the use of storm overflows, safeguard water supplies for a rapidly growing population, and protect the environment”.Southern Water is owned by Australian firm Macquarie which has faced fierce criticism for the period when it was Thames Water’s biggest shareholder.
In five of the 10 years it owned Thames, the company paid out more in dividends than it made in profits, while debt rose from £2.5bn to over £10bn in the same period.Macquarie points out that it has recently injected £500m of additional cash into Southern Water.Water UK, which represents suppliers, said bill rises were “never welcome” and added that water companies were “massively increasing the level of financial support they offer to customers who struggle to pay their bills”.
It will not allow water companies to spend money on anything for which they have already received funding," the industry body said.Ofwat will publish a preliminary report on the bill rises it expects to approve on 12 June with the figures finalised in December.Water services are publicly owned in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The original article contains 710 words, the summary contains 536 words. Saved 25%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Ofwat should only allow this on the provision that executives bonuses are removed, shareholders don’t receive any dividends for the next decade and the current heads of the water companies have to be dragged through a river every week.
I’ve previously advocated for the the first 1000L of any sewage runoff to be directed through executive’s houses.
Now that is a nice idea, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that just forces them into their holiday homes abroad.
Isn’t there a church somewhere that still has a ducking stool? I’ve had an idea. Wonder if they’ll rent it out.
If they leave the country, we can assign a man with a portable bucket of sewage.
We will have no issues finding such a man: Most of Thames Water’s customers would pay for the privilege.
problem is then that shareholders will pull their money and invest elsewhere leaving the taxpayer to pick up the pieces. clever privatisations always leave the public purse to bail out any losses 😒
the solution: don’t privatise in the first place. it’s like selling all your shit at a pawn shop
Nationalise the lot of them. They had their chance.
would love to but where does the money come from to buy out all the shareholders? you would need to raise tens of billions - remember we just spent £10bn to give people a 1% tax cut
and before you say “fuck the shareholders,” remember that lots of them are your pension fund
You pass legislation to make the company unprofitable by making it fulfill it’s obligation to invest in infrastructure to the point where the funds run for the hills.
so the shareholders pull their funds, the water companies struggle and the taxpayer has to step in to bail them out.
It shouldn’t be “lump it on the tax payers” or “we can’t do anything, because innocent pension holders may lose out”.
It’s like the bad guy in the movie holding a hostage so they don’t get shot.
The haircuts should be extracted from the people responsible: The funds that felt it was appropriate to include asset stripping of public utilities in general pension funds, and the executives they put in place/votes they cast at AGMs to make it happen.
If that means that general pension funds fall, the holders should be going after the ones who mismanaged their pension, not the poor bastards having their water bills doubled, or having the cost of bailing out heaped on their government.
Cucked fucking country. All the executives deserve firing squad.
Stop privatising infrastructure you maniacs.
Stop? Do you think it’s continuing? They already are private ☺️.
What you should be saying is: Ask the government to raise billions to buy out private companies that own and operate the vital infrastructure of our country you maniacs!
Not being funny, but this is what you’re calling for (nothing wrong with that) but what are you going to not fund whilst you spend money on this. Even Labour has pretty much said this isn’t going to happen for this very reason.
Our genius is not familiar with CPO’s. Or thinks CPO’s are communism. Let’s find out.
And Northern Ireland, but let’s be honest, Scotland has it’s own issues with nationalised bodies cough ferries cough so we Scots can’t sit here with too smug a grin on our faces. I’m sure Northern Ireland has it’s own issues in this field as well, but I don’t live there so I pay less attention to that.
I broadly agree with nationalising critical infrastructure like water, electricity and gas, some other key infrastructure like railways, the post office and probably a few others I can’t think of at this moment in time but it’s far from perfect and isn’t going to make everything perfect overnight.
Fine them a billion pounds per kilo of sewage dumped, then seize all their assets when they refuse to pay their debt.
You don’t need to buy them out. Fuck them. They can raise bills by inflation and not a penny more, and increase the water and sewage processing to match the extra people they need to over the years. No dumping sewage in rivers or the sea.
If they can’t do it, then they go bust and you get them for nothing.
All this shit was working when they took the services over, and if it’s not now, then it’s because they stole all the money that should have been used for upgrades.