Last week, Sir John Cunliffe produced his report into the problems surrounding our fresh water supplies.
With the River Severn bisecting our communities here in Wyre Forest, readers will be aware of the problems. I meet regularly with campaigners seeking to improve the quality of the water in our rivers, polluted with discharges from overflowing sewers, and run-off from agricultural land.
Of course, we know the extent of the problem because back in 2013, under the Conservative government, we brought in legislation that forced water companies to measure the output of sewage. The problem arises as rainwater fills the surge tanks at sewage farms meaning the alternative to sewage going into the rivers is sewage backing up into our homes and bathrooms. It’s a capacity problem and the last government ordered water companies (through the Environment Act) to reduce the outflow.
The Cunliffe report identifies over 80 recommendations to improve things, and the new government has enthusiastically taken up just five of them.
There are three water regulators. Ofwat and the Drinking Water Inspectorate look at the economics and quality for England and Wales respectively, whilst The Environment Agency looks at the English environment.
Ofwat’s job is to keep bills low. But improving the infrastructure of our water supplies requires a lot of investment and we should all be paying more for water if we want to cure the problem. The government’s estimate is £104 billion more, or £1,733 for each of us. Put it another way, that’s half the annual expenditure on the NHS, or twice the expenditure on defence.
The government, creating fiscal black holes in every direction, has not said where it will find the money.
The government has also said it won’t change the structure of water companies, privatised in the 1980s. There’s a lot of debate about this, with accusations of shareholders ripping off consumers.
The private sector is a force for good, and where you achieve the harmonious balance between the interests of shareholders, staff and customers, you get good businesses. But with the water utilities being monopolies, they do not have the market dynamics of competition. My view is that we should mutualise them, where the customers all own an equal share and have an equal vote.
Irrespective of my personal views, the government must act immediately to improve the situation. After all, with a promise to build 1.5 million new homes by 2030, that’s an awful lot of sewage that needs to be dealt with.
