WATER SHOCK
At last.. utility firms vow to CUT bills
THE biggest water firms have finally pledged to slash bills and invest more cash in fixing leaks.
Business plans sent to the industry’s regulator show households can expect bills to fall on average by more than 4% between 2020 and 2025.
United Utilities customers in the North West are to enjoy a 10.5% cut, around £45 per household. The firm also vowed to reduce leaks by 15%.
Severn Trent told Ofwat it will reduce bills by 5%, its largest cut in two decades, and will triple customer numbers on social tariff schemes.
Thames Water said bills would stay flat but promised a four-fold increase in support for struggling customers across London and Thames Valley.
It also pledged to spend £11.7billion on upgrading its infrastructure, and hoped to cut leakage by 15%.
Thames had to pay out £120million compensation in June for leakage failures. In 2016 Islington, North London, was flooded after a water main burst.
Michael Roberts, of industry body Water UK, said: “The industry has set out an ambitious vision for the future of water that puts customers at the heart of everything companies do.”
Ofwat will publish its findings on the plans in January. It comes as energy firms continue to hike prices and regulator Ofgem raises the price cap for prepayment meter customers.
Henry de Zoete, of autoswitching site Look After My Bills, said: “The Big Six should follow the water companies’ lead. Instead, we get price rise after price rise as they try to make as much money as possible before the price cap comes in.”
PRIVATISED water companies have taken far too long to start plugging leaks and reducing water bills.
The giant suppliers, some foreign-owned, have been increasing prices year after year and leaving broken pipes unrepaired.
Perhaps it was a growing public backlash or the threat of a Labour Government renationalising them finally shamed them into action.
The five-year business plans submitted to regulator Ofwat, reducing bills an average 4% over the five years from 2020 to 2025, are a drop in the ocean after increases and neglected leaks for as long as anybody can remember.
Pressure must also keep intensifying on privatised gas, electricity, post, rail and bus corporations. They too must start giving back instead of repeatedly charging more.
Public accountability, public control and, where necessary, public ownership require enforcement for vital sectors of the economy that put profits before customers.
Meanwhile, water bosses might yet discover they have offered too little, too late.