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Sewage flowed into rivers, lakes and seas for 1.87 million hours in 2025

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sewage-flowed-rivers-lakes-and-seas-187-million-hours-2025

 A tanker pumping out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire which flooded after heavy rainfall, January 10, 2024

SEWAGE flowed into England’s waterways for more than 1.87 million cumulated hours in 2025 despite drier conditions than prior years, official figures released today showed.

Nearly 300,000 incidents of untreated sewage were spilled through overflow systems into rivers, lakes and seas last year.

The practice of dumping sewage is meant to take place only in what water companies call “exceptional circumstances,” meant to prevent sewers from being overwhelmed in case of storms or heavy rain and backing up into homes.

Findings from the second year of full monitoring of the network by the Environmental Agency revealed that there were 291,492 spills of this type across England in 2025.

Despite these figures marking a reduction from the previous year, down more than a third (35 per cent) from 450,398 in 2024, campaigners have continued to slam the mismanagement of Britain’s water systems, calling for private water firms to be taken back into public control.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sewage-flowed-rivers-lakes-and-seas-187-million-hours-2025

April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
Continue ReadingSewage flowed into rivers, lakes and seas for 1.87 million hours in 2025

MPs hear evidence during debate on NHS privatisation in Parliament

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mps-hear-evidence-during-debate-nhs-privatisation-parliament

 A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward

MPs have demanded that Health Secretary Wes Streeting “listen to experts” who warned against implementing his “disastrous” plans to further privatise the NHS.

At a debate chaired by Labour MP Richard Burgon in Westminster on Tuesday, MPs heard new expert evidence exposing that levels of privatisation within the health service were far higher than previously thought.

Mr Burgon said: “We need to push back against this Mandelsonian wing of the Labour party. I want Wes to hear what is being shared in this room.

“Privatisation is disastrous for patients and for workers. It’s not the way forward.”

The meeting with the NHS working group coincided with the publication of a report co-authored by campaigners Keep Our NHS Public and the 99% Organisation.

It found the level of private involvement in the NHS to be about 30 per cent, rather than the more widely known figure of 7 per cent.

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MPs including Rachel Maskell, Andy McDonald, Neil Duncan-Jordan heard testimonies on the “disastrous” state of privatisation in the NHS from health experts, NHS staff and economists.

Report co-author Mark E Thomas said: “The figure which is most referred to in this debate was 7 per cent of privatisation. But really we need to be thinking 30 per cent.”

He added: “In some specialties, more than 50 per cent of treatments are already paid for privately, such as ophthalmology for example. It’s the same for dentistry.”

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Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mps-hear-evidence-during-debate-nhs-privatisation-parliament

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Nigel Farage attacks the NHS
Nigel Farage attacks the NHS
Image of George Osborne asking where is the money to be made in the NHS
Image of George Osborne asking where is the money to be made in the NHS

Continue ReadingMPs hear evidence during debate on NHS privatisation in Parliament

Morning Star Editorial: South East Water should be taken into public ownership

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/south-east-water-should-be-taken-public-ownership

 A worker hands over bottled water at a water station in East Grinstead, after bad weather was blamed for more water outages in Kent and parts of Sussex, January 12, 2026

HOW much longer are people in south-east England expected to put up with the depredations of South East Water?

Seventeen communities across Sussex and Kent, including 30,000 households, were without a water supply today, in some cases for the fourth day running. And this comes after prolonged outages last year, notably in and around Tunbridge Wells.

There is no more basic human requirement than a water supply. Without it, society starts to crumble and, indeed, schools, libraries and health clinics have had to shut in affected areas while elderly residents have been asked to travel up to seventy miles to secure a bottled water supply.

The only thing not in short supply from South East Water is excuses, mainly around the weather — that and fat-cat payments of course.

As recently as 2023 the company was spending millions more on dividends and interest payments on debt — it was debt-free when privatised by Thatcher — than it was in investing in its crumbling infrastructure.

And bungling chief executive David Hinton was, almost unbelievably, paid a £115,000 bonus last year on top of his £400,000 salary.

This was despite not only South East Water’s wretched service delivery but also the fact that it had to turn to its owners —  mainly overseas investment funds — for an extra £200 million in cash to stave off insolvency. The company is barely more stable than the effectively bankrupt Thames Water. Local MPs have unsurprisingly called on Hinton to resign.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/south-east-water-should-be-taken-public-ownership

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: South East Water should be taken into public ownership

Thames Water faces collapse as crisis talks take ‘longer than expected’

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/thames-water-half-year-profit-leaps-to-nearly-400m-even-as-collapse-risk-remains

Thames Water has been on the brink of collapse for more than a year, struggling under the weight of £17bn in net debt, built up over decades since privatisation. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Debt-ridden utility company warns of ‘material uncertainty’ despite seeing profits rise to more than £400m

Thames Water has said crisis talks to secure its future with lenders are taking “longer than expected” and will drag into 2026 as it faces the prospect of a collapse into government control.

Britain’s biggest water company on Wednesday said it had swung to a profit of £414m for the six months to September helped by bills rising by nearly a third, after losing £149m in the same period in 2024.

Despite the jump in reported profits, the company said there was “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt” on its status as a going concern. A collapse into government control under a special administration regime (SAR) – a form of temporary nationalisation – “could occur in the very near term” if it is unable to agree the terms of a formal takeover by its controlling lenders.

Those creditors have asked the regulator, Ofwat, and the government for Thames to be let off future fines for pollution, arguing the prospect of hundreds of millions of pounds of extra costs is making a turnaround impossible.

The standoff has already continued for months longer than originally anticipated and the talks were expected to have concluded by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, the company said: “Discussions are taking longer than expected but this is a complex situation and the current phase of the restructuring plan will likely take a number of months to conclude.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/thames-water-half-year-profit-leaps-to-nearly-400m-even-as-collapse-risk-remains

Continue ReadingThames Water faces collapse as crisis talks take ‘longer than expected’

Campaigners warn of PFI 2.0 as government backs private funding for neighbourhood health centres

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-warn-pfi-20-government-backs-private-funding-neighbourhood-health-centres

A registration form and a stethoscope at the Temple Fortune Health Centre GP Practice near Golders Green, London

A “PFI 2.0” will divert money away from patients and into shareholders’ pockets, campaigners warned today as the government announced plans to use private finance to fund new neighbourhood health centres.

The government has pledged to open 250 centres as part of an effort to shift outpatient care away from hospitals.

Officials say they will serve as “one-stop shops,” bringing together GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists under one roof.

Announcing the plans, Health Minister Karin Smyth warned that government funding “will only get us so far,” citing a £40 billion black hole in the NHS’s finances.

“We need to use every measure available to us, which is why we’re leveraging in private investment to construct some of these centres, making the most of all expertise and every tool at our disposal,” she said.

But campaigners have warned that the use of public-private partnerships could repeat the mistakes of disastrous PFI (private finance initiative) schemes, in which private firms financed the construction of hospitals, leaving taxpayers lumbered with high-interest repayments over the long term.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-warn-pfi-20-government-backs-private-funding-neighbourhood-health-centres

Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
Continue ReadingCampaigners warn of PFI 2.0 as government backs private funding for neighbourhood health centres