… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Tag: water companies

  • Morning Star: Sewage at the boat race: it’s well over time we take water back into public hands

    Spread the love

    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-take-water-back-public-hands

    A rowing boat on the River Thames Putney, London, March 27, 2024

    THE crisis of capitalism is running out of your taps and pouring into our rivers. Britain’s water industry is lurching towards calamity, poisoned by the priorities of profit and abetted by politicians in the pocket of the privateers.

    The largest water company in the country, Thames Water, appears to be on the edge of insolvency after its investors refused to pump in cash essential to the company’s survival — apparently because the reluctance of regulator Ofwat to authorise even steeper increases in bills to households made it an unattractive bet.

    And alarm was spread about the annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race on Saturday having to row through the sewage-ridden Thames, with doubts being cast on maintaining the tradition of throwing the cox of the winning crew in the river on health and safety grounds.

    Now there are calls for the government to declare a national emergency as discharges of raw sewage into rivers and seas across Britain reach a record high.

    These are the fruits of the handing over of the most basic resource to the tender mercies of monopoly capital. The sewage in the rivers is one side of the coin, the riches sitting in shareholders’ bank accounts is the other.

    …

    Nationalisation may be forced on the government in the case of Thames Water. But state control can only work in a context of planning, investment and a role for both workers’ and consumer interests.

    That was Labour Party policy until Keir Starmer abandoned it. It is time the labour movement demanded its reinstatement.

    Many articles from the Morning Star featured today. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-take-water-back-public-hands

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

    Spread the love

    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

  • Green Party responds to increased sewage discharges by water companies

    Spread the love
    Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
    Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

    Reacting to Environment Agency figures showing water companies increasing sewage discharges into rivers, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

    “Water companies continue to be allowed to dump ever more sewage into our rivers, waterways and coastal waters while splashing funds at shareholder dividends and fat cat salaries for water bosses.  

    “The £57bn in payouts from the water industry over the last 30 years should have gone towards improving standards.   

    “Greens would end this failed experiment in privatisation, bringing the water companies back into public control so we can clean up this industry.” 

  • Revealed: Where up to a quarter of your water bill is really going

    Spread the love
    Image of a burst water main.
    Image of a burst water main.

    https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/revealed-where-up-to-a-quarter-of-your-water-bill-is-really-going/

    It’s been branded ‘daylight robbery’

    An investigation by the Guardian published today has revealed that staggering proportions of the public’s water bills are used to service private water firms’ debt. According to the paper’s analysis of financial data over a quarter of some water companies’ revenue goes on servicing debt.

    The UK’s largest water firm, Thames Water, uses an astonishing 28 per cent of its revenue to service debt. Southern Water and South East Water both also use more than a quarter of their revenue for the same purpose.

    Almost the entirety of water company revenue is made up of customer bills. As of March, the private water firms in England had racked up combined debts of more than £60 billion. Meanwhile, since privatisation of water in England in 1989, private water companies have paid out over £70 billion in dividends to shareholders.

    The Guardian notes that Scottish Water, which remains publicly owned, spent just 10 per cent of its revenues financing its debt, less than all of the private water firms in England.

    The revelations have led to a furious public backlash and renewed calls for England’s water to be taken back into public ownership.

    Labour peer and Left Foot Forward columnist Prem Sikka branded the situation as ‘daylight robbery’, saying that money had been ‘borrowed to pay dividends, and that ‘companies want more from captive customers’.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/revealed-where-up-to-a-quarter-of-your-water-bill-is-really-going/

    dizzy: This ridiculous situation is on the Conservatives watch …

    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

  • Sorry is not enough: Water companies must be brought into public ownership

    Spread the love
    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)

    https://greenworld.org.uk/article/sorry-not-enough-water-companies-must-be-brought-public-ownership

    The Green Party has reiterated its call for water companies to be brought into public ownership after Water UK apologised for a series of sewage discharges.

    The Green Party has reiterated its call for water companies to be brought into public ownership after Water UK apologised for presiding over a rising tide of sewage discharges.

    Water UK represents 25 water companies across the UK and said that the public was ‘right to be upset about the current quality of our rivers and beaches’. The companies have also promised to triple funding for sewer system upgrades, cut spilly by up to 25 per cent by 2030, and provide the public with ‘near real-time’ data on sewage spills. 

    Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “Rivers and coastlines up and down the country have faced years of assault at the hands of the water companies and a government that has refused to act.

    “Saying sorry is simply not enough – and suggesting that the public has to pay for any improvements, after £57bn has been paid out in payouts to shareholders over the last 30 years, just adds insult to injury.

    “Currently water companies can, almost with impunity, dump sewage into our rivers, waterways and coastal waters with an appalling cost to public health and our wildlife. This situation cannot go on.

    …

    https://greenworld.org.uk/article/sorry-not-enough-water-companies-must-be-brought-public-ownership