Nationalise water bring down our bills
Penelope Dawber, Lancashire Socialist Party
Ofwat – the Water Services Regulation Authority – is being sued by River Action. Bills have risen by an average of £123 more per household across the country to fund a scheme intended to decrease sewage pollution, going against regulatory laws, according to the claimants. Our bills should have already paid for it, we are effectively being charged twice.
Those with Thames Water are to have a fees rise of 35% to £588, Southern Water by 53% to £642, and United Utilities by 32% to £535. This is alongside previous bill rises nominally to support infrastructure improvements which Ricardo Gama, one of many representing River Action, alleges never even took place. Ofwat rules clearly state customers must only pay for infrastructure investments, not for environmental targets that were supposed to have been met years ago.
Instead, River Action argues that shareholders should pay for the £100 billion sewage cleaning scheme, not working-class people already over-charged on our rent, electricity and water bills. While some may look to the blocking of £4 million worth of bonuses to big water executives as a good sign, it means little to nothing when they are receiving an average 5% pay increase to £1.1 million. Lawrence Gosden, chief executive of Southern Water, will receive an 80% pay increase! Clearly there’s millions to give to the executives polluting our water and punishing us with bill rises, but not for nurses, teachers, and other workers.
This is capitalist exploitation of workers and the environment. Bonuses being cut are just a slap on the wrist that will not bring any meaningful changes. For clean and lower bills, we need to nationalise the water companies under democratic workers’ control, so that profit does not come before our safety. The working-class itself should decide where our money is spent – undoubtedly not to the pockets of the fat cats polluting our waters for their gain.
