Water Companies and Capital Investment
This year has not been a good year for water companies and the disgusting scale of how much sewage is pumped into our rivers has become mainstream news. There is real anger at the water companies. Outflows are meant to be the exception but it seems for those that are monitored, they are pumping sewage into the rivers about 30% of the time. Who knows what the ones that aren't monitored are doing. Apparently 8mm of rain per hours is considered a storm by water companies and is enough to trigger raw sewage overflowing. Insurers consider 25mm to be a storm so 8mm is more like a modest soaking than a storm. Since privatisation, water bills have increased by 40% compared to inflation, investment has declined 17% and £72 billion has been paid in dividends. The water companies are now saying they will have to spend billions (that they have given to shareholders) to catch-up with the service they should be delivering. Where are they expecting to get thes...