water industry

Water privatisers ‘treating system as an ATM,’ campaigners say as bills set to hike

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/water-privatisers-treating-system-atm-campaigners-say-bills-set-hike

 People collect bottled water at a water station in East Grinstead, after South East Water blamed bad weather for more water outages in Kent and parts of Sussex, January 13, 2026.

WATER privatisers are treating the system as an ATM, campaigners said today as South East Water (SEW) confirmed bills will rise to an average of £324 a year from April.

The increase comes as the company faces an Ofwat investigation after thousands of homes and businesses were left without water in recent weeks.

About 30,000 properties across Kent and Sussex were affected earlier this month, which SEW blamed on Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts. 

This followed a similar incident in December, when 24,000 customers in Tunbridge Wells were left without drinking water for up to two weeks.

Ofwat is also investigating whether SEW breached customer service obligations, marking its first probe under the regulator’s customer-focused licence condition.

If breaches are confirmed, the company could be placed into special administration.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/water-privatisers-treating-system-atm-campaigners-say-bills-set-hike

Image of a burst water main.
Image of a burst water main.
Continue ReadingWater privatisers ‘treating system as an ATM,’ campaigners say as bills set to hike

Thames Water want to pollute illegally until 2040

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Continue ReadingThames Water want to pollute illegally until 2040

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.

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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.

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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)
Continue ReadingFive water firms to raise bills after appeal

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.”

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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.

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

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: The neoliberal model of privatised water is 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.

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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)
Continue ReadingOutrage as Thames Water allowed to pay just a fifth of record pollution fines