In July, government water regulator Ofwat said that bills would be capped at 21% over five years. Now, months later, it predicts bills from about half of water companies will rise even higher, with one as high as 44%. And that’s at a time when every water company is under investigation for pollution.
The biggest overhaul of the water industry since privatisation in the 1980s should be reversing it and nationalising the entire industry under democratic workers’ control and management, with compensation only on the basis of proven need. Then prices could be set at an affordable level and investment made to stop pumping waterways full of sewage and pollution.
