… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: nationalise

  • Five water firms to raise bills after appeal

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/five-water-firms-raise-bills-after-appeal

     A water bill from Southern Water

    PLANS to allow water firms to increase bills yet again, despite decades of mismanagement and ongoing pollution, were condemned by campaigners today.

    Five firms are set to raise charges by up to 5 per cent above the limits initially set by regulator Ofwat.

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed that Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water have been permitted to hike their tariffs following an appeal.

    The firms argued that Ofwat’s original decision left them unable to meet the regulatory requirements set out for them.

    It follows a ruling in December, in which Southern had already been allowed to increase bills by 53 per cent over the next five years.

    …

    Kirstin Baker, who chaired the independent group of experts appointed by the CMA to consider the price controls, said that the request for significant bill increases were “largely unjustified.”

    River Action CEO James Wallace said: “Once again, water bill payers are forced to shoulder the cost of decades of failure.

    “Millions of households in England face higher bills while rivers continue to suffer from mismanagement by privatised water companies.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/five-water-firms-raise-bills-after-appeal

    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)

  • Thames Water creditors ask for up to 15 years’ leniency from river pollution rules

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    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/02/thames-water-lenders-submit-new-rescue-plan-to-stave-off-collapse

    Thames Water has been crippled by huge debts. Photograph: Sam Oaksey/Alamy

    Lenders say a ‘full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance’ under new rescue plan would not be completed until at least 2035-2040

    Thames Water may not fully comply with rules on pollution of England’s waterways for as long as 15 years, according to a new plan by creditors who are scrambling to avoid the utility being forced into government administration.

    The creditors who in effect own Thames Water have said they will commit to paying fines for pollution, as well as writing off more of their loans and investing more in the company, in new proposals published on Thursday.

    However, the creditors also said that “a full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance” under their plan would not be completed until at least the 2035-2040 period, raising the prospect of sewage levels above legal limits in some places for at least a decade. They will argue for further leniency on fines from the regulator, Ofwat, during that period, and that it will be impossible for the company to make upgrades across London and south-east England more quickly because of the scale of the work needed after years of neglect.

    The group of financial institutions, under the new London & Valley Water holding company, has been locked in talks with Ofwat since May over acceptable terms for the hugely complex restructuring of Britain’s biggest water company.

    Thames Water has been crippled by huge debts built up over two decades by owners who have been criticised for paying out dividends without investing enough in its leaking pipes and malfunctioning treatment works. That contributed to widespread public outrage over the level of sewage in Britain’s rivers and seas.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/02/thames-water-lenders-submit-new-rescue-plan-to-stave-off-collapse

    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)

  • Morning Star Editorial: The neoliberal model of privatised water is sunk

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/neoliberal-model-privatised-water-sunk

     A tanker from Thames Water

    INVESTMENT in Britain’s water utilities took a dive under Thatcher’s government. By 1980 investment by the regional water authorities dropped by two-thirds as the neoliberal straitjacket into which public expenditure was confined limited their ability to raise capital.

    Contrast this to the present situation where the now privatised water companies have racked up millions in loans that seem more valued as a source of ready cash to pay bonuses, dividends and sweeteners than infrastructure investment.

    The total debt burden of the dozen privately owned water companies stands at £65 billion which this year’s Commons report says is perilously close to the 70 per cent gearing at which commercial credibility is compromised.

    Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, which has been involved in legal challenges to a number of water companies, says: “The water sector has been poorly regulated for decades. It has been poorly regulated primarily by allowing water companies to over extract water from aquifers and reservoirs but also cash from operating entities within the water companies, and they’ve been allowed to underinvest in water infrastructure.”

    …

    The logical case for public ownership is sometimes challenged by the suggestion that taking these failing enterprises into public ownership would be prohibitively expensive.

    This is, of course, true if these enterprises were to offered for sale at the price their owners value them. A socialist government armed with a popular mandate and backed by a working class armed with both resolve and the necessary instruments of coercion might simply dispossess these rapacious incompetents and instruct them, individually and as a class, to find an alternative way of making a living freed of the responsibilities of ownership.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/neoliberal-model-privatised-water-sunk

  • Outrage as Thames Water allowed to pay just a fifth of record pollution fines

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/outrage-thames-water-allowed-pay-just-fifth-record-pollution-fines

     A Thames Water van

    THAMES WATER will only have to pay a fifth of its record £122.7 million in fines under a “sweetheart deal,” with industry regulator Ofwat branded “outrageous” by water campaigners today.

    The heavily indebted utility firm was handed the penalties in May for failures over sewage treatment and paying out dividends.

    It has already passed a deadline for paying them by August 20 but has now agreed to pay only a fifth by the end of next month, with the remainder subject to securing a private rescue deal and cash injection.

    Ofwat said that it had set a final “backstop date” of March 31 2030 for payment of the remaining penalties whether or not Britain’s biggest water company avoids insolvency.

    It would have 30 calendar days to pay up after securing such a deal or at the end of an insolvency process that would see it placed into a government special administration scheme.

    River Action chief executive James Wallace said: “It is outrageous that Thames Water has been allowed to kick its fine down the road.

    “This fine must be paid by those responsible, not future owners and investors.

    “Ordinary people do not get to walk into court and say, ‘I’ll pay the rest of my penalty if I get a better paying job.’ Yet that is exactly the sweetheart deal Thames Water has secured.

    “This is not accountability. The investors who drained the company and pocketed £170 million in dividends in October 2023 and March 2024 may never feel the consequences.

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/outrage-thames-water-allowed-pay-just-fifth-record-pollution-fines

    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)

  • Government urged to drop ‘parasitic’ private contracts as rail fares set to soar

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

     People using a ticket machine at Waterloo train station in London

    THE government was urged to ditch “parasitic” private contracts today after it emerged that regulated train fares in England could soar by 5.8 per cent next year.

    This year fares went up 4.6 per cent — one point higher than last July’s retail prices index (RPI).

    …

    The government is set to renationalise all train operators by 2027 and integrate them into Great British Railways, a new public body which will also oversee rail infrastructure.

    However GBR will continue to lease rolling stock, carriages and locomotives, from private firms. Outsourced contracts, such as those for cleaning staff, are also set to remain.

    A spokesperson for rail union RMT said: “Our analysis shows that £720 million is extracted each year from our railways through rolling stock leasing, outsourcing and subcontracting.

    “Eliminating that profiteering would allow fares to be cut by 6.5 per cent.

    “The government has an opportunity under GBR to remove these parasitic contracts that drain resources from the network and instead offer real value for money for passengers through public ownership.”

    …

    Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar