Imo somethings never be in the hands of free enterprise, but that’s just me.
The sold the poles and wires here and as we switch to a greener alternative the keep increasing the rate to send power back. There’s even talk of them “renting” the wires. Damn joke.
Yes but balance HH, balance…
I don’t believe balance applies here. A few good deeds in supporting wetlands does not remotely compensate for over 31,000 discharges. It’s just a disgrace. If they remain private, no dividends should be allowed until environmental obligations are met, nor should any of the management receive performance bonuses. It’s simply wrong.
It does when I’m trying to ensure the thread doesn’t get pulled.
Can I make it any plainer???
Thanks for explaining to the excessively dim. I don’t agree there is a need for balance. There are no mitigating factors. Greed has taken priority over wider responsibilities. We have a very good thread on the Post Office scandal, where there are no mitigating factors either. Too much balance lets people off the hook. The sewage scandal is going to grow and grow and no amount of greenwashing to cover up brownwashing is going to work, hopefully anyway.
OFWAT? could insist that all profits go to infrastructure until infrastructure is at the required standard. At that point dividends could then be paid but only after infrastructure maintenance etc is paid for. Deliver the service first and then if there is any profit left over give as dividend, or maybe even reduce the price to customers. Appreciate this means that interest on loans may not be covered…
Richard - please pull if against rules.
Sigh. Whatever HH, however the thread was not created as a means to attack the water companies directly, rather to applaud one man’s work, a fella with a music industry past and thereby likely of interest to many on the forum. The clue is in the title…
Sorry, I’d forgotten that you started the thread. Memory of a gnat. I agree, he’s doing a great job and should be applauded for his efforts.
If it wasn’t for people like Fergal and campaigns by Surfers Against Sewage this whole sorry mess would not have been aired in the public domain.
It is a sorry state of affairs where we have a privatised water industry that seems to operate on a purely profit lead basis paying their CEO’s exorbitant amounts of money and dishing out dividends to shareholders with little or no investment in the basic infrastructure on which the industry relies.
My own water company Severn Trent paid its CEO 3.2 million in pay and bonuses last year and was responsible for over 60,000 sewage spills in the same year and they now want to increase bills by 50% over the next 5 years to pay for infrastructure improvements.
Thames Water has been run so poorly that by all accounts it is now bankrupt and surprise surprise they are one of the worst offenders in relation to illegal spills.
We have ineffective monitoring bodies in respect to OFWAT and the EA and the best the Government can say is that we have increased the monitoring process so that we now know how much sewage is being illegally dumped in our rivers and seas, what a sorry state we find ourselves in.
We are, quite literally, in the poo.
That’s a depressing story. However I’m not saying much cause I’ve already been censored.
It was inevitable that privatisation would not deliver the necessary upgrades to infrastructure. However, I can’t see another governance model working as Ofwat has been hoodwinked. But I’m open to suggestions.
I’m just thinking if Feargal is getting his pension from water company dividends - I assume we all are and living on the benefits of their actions.
Yup many people conveniently forget that a big part of our pension is dependent on all sorts of investments. That’s also one of the reasons I don’t buy the criticism on the fact that Focal Naim is owned by Private Equity. It may well be the reason that some receive a pension.
Nevertheless, privatization has taken a step poo far.
If so, then you, or more likely your fund manager on the assumption you don’t own shares directly, should take the opportunity to remind them of their responsibilities!
Moving money elsewhere works. Reminding them of their responsibilities has hardly any effect. An extra Bentley or not does have an effect.
I think he’s doing an outstanding job and as a river angler I experience this first hand and it’s an utter disgrace what companies are being allowed to get away with.
A few days before the season started last year there was a huge fish kill on the Warks Avon and surrounding rivers / tributaries.
I walked the banks on June the 16th and what I saw was horrific. Small dead silver fish everywhere and lots of specimen Barbel and Chub belly-up in the shallows.
It was reported as an “oxygen crash” but the white foam running down the river and rumours of a large upstream sewage discharge days prior ring alarm bells.
According to the Angling Trust:
“Environment Agency (EA) data from the past four years shows an alarming rise in the number of fish deaths linked to sewage pollution, with figures escalating from 26,690 in 2020-2021 to a staggering 116,135 in 2023-2024, a 176% increase on the previous year. Southern Water and Thames Water stand out as being responsible for the majority of fish kill incidents linked to sewage pollution in 2023-2024”.
I thought I would attach these statistics from the Environment Agency , showing the extremes we have encountered in the last night. All this extra rain will be washing extra pollutants into the rivers
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