GMB

‘Never-ending cost-of-living crisis’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/never-ending-cost-living-crisis

 An online energy bill

Labour urged to reform energy pricing over surprise rise in bills

LABOUR was urged to reform energy pricing yesterday as unions and campaigners warned that a surprise 2 per cent rise in bills will hit 12 million homes already in fuel poverty.

GMB union hit out at the “never-ending cost-of-living crisis” after regulator Ofgem announced that the average household’s energy bill is to rise to £1,755 a year from October — despite wholesale prices falling by 2 per cent over the past three months.

Standing charges — the figure consumers pay per day to have energy supplied to their homes — are set to rise by 4 per cent for electricity and a whopping 14 per cent for gas, or 7p a day.

The 2.21 per cent year-on-year rise means average annual energy bills will be £713 higher than in winter 2020/21.

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast said: “People are already struggling under a never-ending cost-of-living crisis.

“Any increase in energy prices could crash millions of household budgets.

“To make any green transition work, the UK has to be pragmatic: taking advantage of cheap gas prices to cut bills instead of subsidising heat pumps for the richest.

“The poorest in society must not be the ones who bear the biggest burden for saving our planet.”

Energy minister Michael Shanks blamed wholesale gas prices remaining 75 per cent above their levels before Russia invaded Ukraine. 

But End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “We need urgent reforms to fix the broken pricing system, steps to ensure households benefit from targeted support for cold homes, a nationwide insulation and ventilation drive, reform of energy trading rules and lower standing charges.

“Meanwhile, expansion of renewables and upgrading the grid must be funded by investment or by tackling excess network and energy company profits, not by loading more costs onto struggling households.”

Pointing out that gas unit rates remain almost double pre-crisis levels and the cost of electricity in Britain is set by the most expensive generator — usually gas-fired power stations — he added: “It’s time for action — wind and solar are far cheaper ways of generating power and North Sea gas reserves are unable to meet domestic heating needs from 2027.”

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Revealed: Yorkshire Water boss was paid extra £1.3m via offshore parent firm

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/03/yorkshire-water-boss-pay-offshore-parent-company

Nicola Shaw received remuneration from Kelda Holdings as well as Yorkshire Water. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian

Company says extra payments relating to work for Kelda Holdings were covered by shareholders not billpayers

The boss of Yorkshire Water, one of Britain’s biggest water suppliers, has received £1.3m in previously undisclosed extra pay since 2023 via an offshore parent company, the Guardian can reveal.

Nicola Shaw received £660,000 from Yorkshire Water’s Jersey-registered parent company, Kelda Holdings, in the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 financial years. The size of the fees was not disclosed in the annual report of the regulated subsidiary, Yorkshire Water Services.

The utility company at first refused to detail the pay Kelda Holdings had awarded Shaw, saying the parent company was a “private entity registered in Jersey and subject to separate disclosure frameworks”. Only after the Guardian raised questions about the ability of MPs and bill payers to scrutinise the pay awarded did the company reveal the amount of the two payments.

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Gary Carter, the national officer for GMB, a union representing water workers, said: “This is another case of water companies not listening to the outrage and concerns of the public over the payment of unjustifiable salaries.

“The fact that this salary is hidden and not transparent just further undermines the reputation of water companies. This sort of behaviour has got to end.”

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Read the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/03/yorkshire-water-boss-pay-offshore-parent-company

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 ReadingRevealed: Yorkshire Water boss was paid extra £1.3m via offshore parent firm

Troubled Thames Water reveals ballooning debts and losses for the past year

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/troubled-thames-water-reveals-ballooning-debts-and-losses-past-year

 A tanker pumps out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire, January 10, 2024

THAMES WATER’s debts have ballooned to £16.8 billion and it made a loss of £1.65bn in the year to March, the company revealed today, sparking fresh calls for renationalisation.

Appearing before the Commons environment committee, chief executive Chris Weston admitted that the company was “extremely stressed” and would take “at least a decade to turn around.”

Britain’s largest water supplier also revealed a sharp increase in pollution incidents over the past year.

Gary Carter, a national officer at water industry union GMB, said: “Thames Water is drowning under a mountain of debt.

“Hiking customer bills has led to a rise in operating profit, money that should go on investment but is being swallowed up by monstrous loans needed to keep the company afloat.

“While Thames lurches from crisis to crisis, the solution is clear: it must be taken back into public ownership, with workers’ terms, conditions and pensions protected.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/troubled-thames-water-reveals-ballooning-debts-and-losses-past-year

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Reeves plots mega raid on pensions, union warns

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-plots-mega-raid-on-pensions-union-warns

MORE than six million workers’ pension pots are at risk under Treasury plans to create so-called “megafunds” to siphon off into national infrastructure projects, GMB warned today.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she wants to pool assets from the 86 separate local government pension schemes (LGPS) into eight funds, worth about £50 billion, by 2030.

She is due to announce her plans, which the government claims will be part of the “biggest pension reforms in decades,” in her inaugural Mansion House speech as Chancellor before City leaders tonight.

Alongside these are plans to combine smaller defined-contribution schemes across the country into pools of £25bn to £50bn.

GMB union has raised “strong reservations” over the annoucements, warning megafunds should not be used as “slush funds” for the Treasury.

The LGPS represents one of the world’s largest defined-benefit schemes, with 6.5 million members and some £360bn in assets.

GMB national pensions organiser George Gergiou told the Morning Star: “Our view is the Treasury have seen that and said we want a bit of that to fund some of our great infrastructure projects.

“This is not spare money, this is not a slush fund for people to dip into.”

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Read the full article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-plots-mega-raid-on-pensions-union-warns

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More than 1,000 trade unionists block four Israeli weapons factories

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/more-1000-trade-unionists-block-four-israeli-weapons-factories

Activists blockade Eaton Mission Systems in Bournemouth Photo:  Workers for a Free Palestine

FOUR arms factories producing parts for Israeli fighter jets were shut down in protests by more than 1,000 trade unionists today.

Campaigners calling for an end to Britain’s complicity in war crimes being committed in Gaza blockaded sites at Bournemouth, Glasgow, Brighton and Lancashire.

The demonstrations were organised by campaign group Workers for a Free Palestine in co-ordination with workers in France, Denmark and the Netherlands, involving members from trade unions including Unite, Unison, GMB, the NEU, the BMA, UCU, Bectu and BFAWU.

The campaign group said they targeted sites run by defence giant BAE Systems which produces parts for the F-35 stealth combat jet currently being used by Israel to bombard Gaza.

More than 600 blockaded Eaton Mission Systems in Bournemouth alone.

A spokeswoman for Workers for a Free Palestine said: “The fighter jets these factories help to produce are being used to imprison the people of Gaza in a death trap.

“Workers all over Britain are rising up for Palestine, saying we will not allow arms used in a genocide to be supplied in our name and funded by our taxes.

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/more-1000-trade-unionists-block-four-israeli-weapons-factories

Craig Murray discusses the positive legal obligation to prevent genocide.

Every single state in the world has a positive duty to intervene to prevent the Genocide in Gaza now, not after a court has reached a determination of genocide. This is made crystal clear in para 431 of the International Court of Justice judgment in Bosnia vs Serbia:

This obviously does not mean that the obligation to prevent genocide only comes into being when perpetration of genocide commences ; that would be absurd, since the whole point of the obligation is to prevent, or attempt to prevent, the occurrence of the act. In fact, a State’s obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. From that moment onwards, if the State has available to it means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide, or reasonably suspected of harbouring specific intent (dolus specialis), it is under a duty to make such use of these means as the circumstances permit.

This case was specifically on the application of the Genocide Convention. That the ICJ has ruled there is a positive duty on states to act to prevent genocide makes it even more astonishing to me that no state has invoked the Genocide Convention over the blatant genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza.

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