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Tag: profiteering

  • Environmental groups call for mass rally to demand action on water pollution

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/environmental-groups-call-mass-rally-demand-action-water-pollution

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

    ENVIRONMENTAL groups called on the public today to mobilise this autumn and ramp up pressure on the government to tackle Britain’s water pollution crisis.

    River Action, Surfers Against Sewage and Greenpeace are among the groups who will join the March for Clean Water in Central London on October 26.

    It will mark the end of the first 100 days of the Labour government, and take place just days before Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first Budget.

    An escalating water crisis looms, driven by factors such as ageing infrastructure, lack of investment from water firms and industrial pollution.

    More than 3.6 million hours of raw sewage discharges poured into rivers and seas last year — a 105 per cent increase compared with 2022.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/environmental-groups-call-mass-rally-demand-action-water-pollution

  • 16 water monopolies have paid out a total of £78bn in dividends, as Thames Water teeters on the brink

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    Image of a burst water main.
    Image of a burst water main.

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/16-water-monopolies-have-paid-out-a-total-of-78bn-in-dividends-as-thames-water-teeters-on-the-brink/

    When England’s water industry was privatised in 1989, we were told it would lead to ‘shareholder democracy’. Instead, what we’ve seen is a monopoly which has resulted in consumer bills soaring, while infrastructure deteriorates and the debt of water companies soars.

    Since the 1990s, investment by the 10 largest water and sewage companies has fallen by 15%. Now new research published by the Financial Times has found that 16 water monopolies have paid out a total of £78bn in dividends in the 32 years since privatisation.

    The paper states: “The £78bn payout is nearly half the £190bn the companies spent in the same three decades on infrastructure. The utilities meanwhile chalked up more than £64bn net in debt over the same period, despite being sold at privatisation with no borrowings.”

    The FT also finds that water companies in England and Wales paid £2.5bn in dividends and added £8.2bn to their net debt in the two financial years since 2021.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/16-water-monopolies-have-paid-out-a-total-of-78bn-in-dividends-as-thames-water-teeters-on-the-brink/

    Here’s how much you would’ve saved if water had been in public ownership

  • Fresh crisis for Thames Water as investors pull plug on £500m of funding

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    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/28/fresh-crisis-for-thames-water-as-investors-pull-plug-on-500m-of-funding

    In July, Thames Water had agreed £750m of funding, with the first payment expected to be made on 31 March. Photograph: Maureen McLean/Shutterstock

    Decision raises concerns about financial future of UK’s biggest water company

    Investors at Thames Water have pulled the plug on £500m of emergency funding, raising concerns about the financial future of the country’s largest water company.

    The beleaguered utilities firm announced this morning that its shareholders had refused to provide the first tranche of £750m funding set to secure its short-term cashflow, after the company had failed to meet certain conditions.

    …

    The crisis for Thames Water comes after devastating data on the scale of raw sewage discharges into rivers and seas this week.

    Thames Water, who admit in their business plan they have been “sweating assets”, oversaw a 163% [increase?] in the duration of sewage dumping into rivers as their creaking infrastructure failed to cope with rainfall levels.

    Thames is also at the centre of a major investigation by the water regulator Ofwat into sewage dumping from its treatment works, which could lead to massive financial penalties being imposed on the company.

    …

    Thames Water said on Wednesday that investors believed the conditions of funding had not been met and the £500m of new equity would not be handed over in the coming days.

    A statement on behalf of Thames’s shareholders appeared to blame Ofwat: “After more than a year of negotiations with the regulator, Ofwat has not been prepared to provide the necessary regulatory support for a business plan which ultimately addresses the issues that Thames Water faces. As a result, shareholders are not in a position to provide further funding to Thames Water.

    “Shareholders will work constructively with Thames Water, Ofwat and government on how to address the consequences of Ofwat’s decision.”

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/28/fresh-crisis-for-thames-water-as-investors-pull-plug-on-500m-of-funding

  • COVID Cronyism and Mone – The Tip of the Iceberg: Byline Times’ Full Story of the PPE Cash Carousel 

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    https://bylinetimes.com/2023/12/20/covid-cronyism-and-mone-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-byline-times-full-story-of-the-ppe-cash-carousel/

    This story goes far wider than PPE Medpro and Baroness Michelle Mone Photo: Justin Tallis/PA/Alamy

    Byline Times has been unravelling the dealings behind the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the UK since the very early days of the pandemic. Here’s what we learnt – and what we still need answers to…

    Within weeks of the first lockdown, Nafeez Ahmed on Byline Times became arguably the first journalist to break the story of the emerging personal protective equipment (PPE) scandal. 

    On April 2 2020, he exposed how lucrative contracts were being awarded to Conservative Party associates. 

    Boris Johnson’s Government had appointed a giant haulage firm with financial ties to the Tory Party to be in charge of a new supply channel for PPE to the NHS. Its founding executive chairman was Steven N. Parkin, a top Conservative Party donor who has attended exclusive ‘Leaders Group’ meetings and donated almost £1 million to the party in the preceding five years. 

    This set the tone for an extensive investigation into COVID-19 contracts, shedding light on a concerning trend of cronyism.

    That May, Stephen Delahunty on Byline Times revealed that another Conservative donor was involved in the COVID-19 contracts.

    Europa Worldwide Group – the managing director of which was a personal donor to Johnson – was found to be arranging PPE supplies for the NHS and manufacturing testing kits. 

    …

    In July 2020, Delahunty revealed that companies with no prior experience or expertise were inexplicably receiving multi-million-pound contracts. This was despite the looming threat of legal challenges over what was to be dubbed the ‘VIP Lane’: pathways for firms to win government contracts with little oversight and through referrals from well-connected politicians. 

    …

    In quick succession, we found that a recruitment firm with just £322 in net assets had received an £18 million Government contract.

    …

    Things got even weirder that August, when Byline Times revealed the companies linked to the exclusive Plymouth Brethren religious sect which were mopping up huge COVID contracts. And still the warning signs kept flashing, as we dug up dormant firms which emerged from seemingly nowhere to win millions in PPE deals. 

    All these contracts could be justified if they were effective in saving lives. But in August 2020, we began to see the true picture: much of the PPE purchased at vast sums couldn’t actually be used. It wasn’t up to scratch. Meanwhile, NHS staff continued to complain of shortages and shoddy equipment.  

    …

    In 2021, the COVID cash machine just kept giving – to a select few. 

    Pulling together a year of evidence, Byline Times and The Citizens revealed that deals worth at least £2 billion had been awarded to top Conservative Party associates during the Coronavirus crisis.

    A firm that gave £400,000 to the Conservatives won a £93.8 million PPE deal. The figures being handed to the Plymouth Brethren sect alone hit £1.1 billion. 

    And, as before, vast amounts of the PPE were useless. 

    …

    This newspaper was the first to reveal Mone’s links to the firm – links which were vigorously denied under threat of libel action, but which we now know to have been true. (Mone and PPE Medpro are under investigation by the National Crime Agency but deny any illegality).

    It was one of many companies that were referred by Conservative MPs and peers to the expedited ‘VIP Lane’ for PPE contracts during the pandemic. 

    PPE Medpro took in the region of £60 million in profits. Much of its PPE was also deemed unusable by the NHS.

    Overall, the value lost to dodgy PPE was nearly £9 billion – a quarter of the annual UK budget for housing and the environment put together.

    Is there any other country in the world that has witnessed sleaze and scandal on such a scale around COVID contracts?

    And did the £200 million-plus COVID ‘bungs’ to the press – the Government’s ‘All in, All Together’ public information campaign subsidising profitable newspapers – help Johnson’s administration get away with it? 

    …

    COVID Cronyism and Mone – The Tip of the Iceberg: Byline Times’ Full Story of the PPE Cash Carousel 

    Image of an iceberg
    The tip of the iceberg

  • BP accused of putting ‘profit before people and planet’ as fossil fuel investments revealed

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    Extinction Rebellion protests at BP
    Extinction Rebellion protests at BP. Banner reads big profits before planet

    https://leftfootforward.org/2023/11/bp-accused-of-putting-profit-before-people-and-planet-as-fossil-fuel-investments-revealed/

    The energy giant BP has been accused of prioritising its profits over people and the planet after making £2.7 billion in profit over the last quarter, while investing £2 billion in fossil fuels.

    Leading think tank IPPR said now was a time when energy companies should be urgently responding to climate change, but instead BP has “doubled down on its oil and gas business to reap enormous profits.”

    For every £1 BP spent on low carbon investments in the last quarter, they invested £11 in fossil fuels it was revealed. And since the energy price shock began two years ago, BP has put nine times more into fossil fuels as renewables.

    BP also completed more than £14.8 billion of buybacks from surplus cash flow whilst announcing a new round of share buybacks, which will transfer £1.2 billion to shareholders.

    “It’s clear that oil and gas companies are prioritising their shareholders at the expense of the transition to clean energy, so the UK government must now take the reins by investing in renewables,” said Joseph Evans, IPPR researcher.

    Although BP’s profits have actually fallen on last year, when the oil company saw mega earnings following the rise in oil prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, £2.7 billion profit between July and September remains extremely high as organisations ask why ordinary people are still facing high energy bills.

    “The government has had countless opportunities to bring down our bills and emissions. Instead, all we’ve had are weakened green policies and massive tax breaks for oil and gas giants,” Friends of the Earth responded.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2023/11/bp-accused-of-putting-profit-before-people-and-planet-as-fossil-fuel-investments-revealed/