Water companies 'will add cost of cleaning up sewage spills to customers bills'
The public will have to pay towards stopping sewage being dumped in the sea and rivers for up to a century.
The trade body representing the mega-rich water companies said consumers will face “modest upward pressure” on bills as part of their £10billion modernisation scheme.
Angry campaigners hit back saying the privatisied firms should bear the full cost of replacing the crumbling Victorian system which spews out raw effluent during heavy downpours.
Last year they paid investors £1.4bn and since 2020 bosses have shared more than £30million in incentives. The heads of Yorkshire, Thames and West Water last week turned down bonuses in response to public anger.
Former Labour Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, who now runs industry trade body Water UK, said “We’re sorry we didn’t act sooner but we get it.”
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However, she added that consumers will face “modest upward pressure” as firms recover the costs of their £10bn investment over 50 to 100 years. Bills have already risen 7.5% since April.
Musician-turned-campaigner Feargal Sharkey (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)Pop star turned river campaigner Feargal Shakey said: “We’ve paid them for a service we haven’t got and now they’re suggesting we pay them a second time for a service we haven’t had. We should have an apology for their incompetence and greed.”
Lib Dem environment spokesman Tim Farron said: “Customers are being asked to pay more to clean up the water companies’ own mess all while CEOs get huge bonuses.”
Last year, on average, effluent was dumped 825 times a day. Water UK, which represents 25 com-panies, has promised to cut this by 35% by 2030.
Izzy Ross, of Surfers Against Sewage, said “Firms have told us they will change. But why should we trust them? They’ve overseen decades of mismanagement while siphoning off tens of billions.
“This new plan is no different with consumers set to foot the bill again. We won’t stand for it.”
Gary Carter of the GMB union added: “Our waterways are in crisis and the companies’ solution is that the public should pay. That’s outrageous.
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“Shareholders should be putting the money in not taxpayers.
“The Government and regulator need to sort this mess out.”
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Anglian Water suggested bills would rise by an average £90 a year to pay for the improvements.
The news comes after North Norfolk beaches East Runton, Mundesley and Sea Palling lost their Blue Flag awards due to a drop in water quality.
Just like our rivers, this deal stinks, writes JASON BEATTIE
The water companies claim they are sorry for polluting our seas and rivers with raw sewage.
They are not genuinely sorry.
There was no apology for paying shareholders more than £65billion in the last three decades instead of investing in infrastructure.
There was no apology for loading the firms with debts while siphoning profits to overseas owners.
Nor was there any apology for the £30million in bonuses pocketed by the managers of these privatised firms in the last two years. And there was absolutely no apology for making customers foot the bill for the additional £10billion of investment they are now promising.
If the water firms act like racketeers that’s because they are the beneficiaries of the biggest racket of all: Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation of our water.
She flogged it on the cheap and companies were handed monopolies on a plate. Penalties for discharging sewage were so pathetic there was no incentive for firms to act.
Labour has said renationalisation would be too expensive.
But there is no reason why they cannot change the law to force water companies to become not-for-profit.
Anything is better than the current arrangement, which like our rivers, stinks.
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