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Tag: Undertones

Labour’s new powers for water customers are a ‘stitch-up’, say campaigners
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/07/labour-new-powers-water-companies-consumer-stitch-up
Ministers promised last year to set up new water boards for consumers that would allow them to air complaints. Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images
[Guardian] Exclusive: Documents reveal water firms have been allowed to advise on how they wish to be held to account
Labour’s new powers for customers to hold water companies to account are a “stitch-up”, campaigners have said, as utilities firms have been advising on how to implement it.
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Documents released under freedom of information laws reveal the CCW has been consulting water companies on how to set up the new consumer boards that would hold them to account. It said it had “set up an industry advisory group to get ideas, feedback and advice from water companies”.
Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones frontman turned water campaigner, said: “This is a stitch-up. If water companies are involved in setting this up customers will not get any redress. The people who are important in all of this are the customers who have been extorted by these companies. The CCW is asking the extorters what should be happening to the victims, this is an outrage and a scandal.”
He added: “It sounds like this scheme will be equally inept and dysfunctional.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/07/labour-new-powers-water-companies-consumer-stitch-up
7 September 2026
Thames Water launches appeal for permission to raise bills even higher
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Image of a burst water main.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/14/thames-water-launches-appeal-for-permission-to-raise-bills-even-higher
Struggling firm to appeal to competition watchdog to hike fees by more than Ofwat-approved 35% over next five years
Thames Water is to appeal to the UK’s competition regulator to be allowed to raise customers’ bills over the next five years even higher than previously granted, prompting a furious reaction from campaigners.
The water company, which serves 16 million customers in London and south-east England, will ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for permission to raise bills from 2025 to 2030 by more than the 35% the water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, approved last year.
Thames Water, which is on the verge of financial collapse, had wanted to raise bills by 59% over the next five years. It said on Friday morning its board had concluded that Ofwat’s final determination would not allow the investment and improvement needed to improve its services.
The move was swiftly criticised by clean water campaigners. Feargal Sharkey, the former lead singer of the Undertones, said Thames was showing “two fingers to customers” by seeking even higher bills, having “dumped billions of litres of sewage into rivers” and extracted too much water from chalk streams.
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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/14/thames-water-launches-appeal-for-permission-to-raise-bills-even-higher
14 February 2025

Tag: Undertones

Labour’s new powers for water customers are a ‘stitch-up’, say campaigners

[Guardian] Exclusive: Documents reveal water firms have been allowed to advise on how they wish to be held to account

Thames Water launches appeal for permission to raise bills even higher

Struggling firm to appeal to competition watchdog to hike fees by more than Ofwat-approved 35% over next five years