£6.5billion windfall for shareholders from water companies

THE nine privatised water firms in England have paid £6.5billion to shareholders in just five years.

Over the period 2.4billion litres of water was wasted every day through leaks, the GMB found.

United Utilities, which is due to impose a hosepipe ban next month, paid most at more than £1.2billion.

Investors in Severn Trent Water made nearly £1.1billion and shareholders in South West Water pocketed £789million.

The figures come from a joint investigation with Corporate Watch as part of the union’s Take Back the Tap Campaign to bring England’s water industry back into public ownership.

Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary, said: “Forking out billions to shareholders, while bills rocket and trillions of litres of water are wasted shows how broken the system is.”

Chi Onwurah, Labour’s Shadow Business Minister, added: “Over the last eight years, water companies received more in tax credits than they paid in tax.

“Some paid more in dividends than they made in profits, running up debts passed to billpayers. Labour will bring them into public ownership.”