For once a #SouthernWater has done the right thing.
Back-scratching the wealthy & breaking rules because they may honour the ordinary people with favours is unacceptable.
What would be next...turning off a life-support machine so the elite can light their driveway?
We are not serfs doffing caps at the lord of the manor.
We are a democracy & must prevent that being shredded.
“English water companies have spent £16.6m fighting legal action against regulators and campaigners over environmental breaches such as illegal sewage spills.” Tsch! tsch! campaigners and regulators! Set the legal dogs on them. We can afford it. It’s the punters money. #Water #Pollution #Capitalism #Ofwat
“Ofwat chief executive to step down ahead of regulator’s abolition.” Will he get a plum job with a water company for being a good boy? #Water #Privatisation #Ofwat
So who here thinks the 'new opportunities' that David Black will be pursuing having resigned from being Head of OFWAT will include either joining the board(s) of water & sewage firms or offering expensive consultancy to these firms (possibly via an existing services firms)?
We can be sure however, that he will fail upwards.
#water #sewage #politics #OFWAT
h/t FT
Bringing water in England back into public ownership
There was an interesting letter in the Gruaniad that argues (concisely) that the government is being deliberately misleading about the cost of nationalising the water ‘industry’ - that well known monopoly designed to fleece English house holds and tax payers.
https://www.thepeoplescommissiononthewatersector.co.uk/
Duplicate image to include all alt.text
#Water #Nationalisation #England #Monopoly #Valuation #Labour #Ofwat
“A drink from the Ankh would quite probably rob a man of his memory, or at least cause things to happen to him that he would in no account wish to recall.”
Terry Pratchett; Soul Music
#Discworld #Ofwat #WaterDayForWater #PrivatisationFails
So. Farewell then Ofwat
Most effluent of the Regulators
Flushed with lack of success
Bringer of dividends and bonuses to the few
(though recently not much)
Shitty, shitty Quango
Adieu
Thribb aged 17 and a half
I applaud Starmer for at beginning to implement promised reforms.
'Boris Johnson, the Conservative former prime minister, breached the rules on taking jobs after government on three separate occasions without facing a proper sanction’
Standards bodies (see #ACOBA #OfCom #OfWat for examples) are toothless. Set up to give the illusion that the British State actrually cares about corruption.
Just going to repeat something.
#Ofwat ALWAYS had teeth.
It could have fined any water company 10% of its turnover at any time. It chose never to do so. So what confidence do we have that this new organisation will be more effective?
Why was #WaterPrivatisation not mentioned in Cunliffe's report today
Not one word
Fergal Sharkey talks about #WaterPrivatisation
THREAD 1/5
Thur Southern Water boss doubles salary
Fri announcement of 60% increase in serious pollution incidents
YESTERDAY g'ment put together a raft of stuff which upon examination was nothing more than what the previous Tory g'ment was saying and nothing to do with this industry at all
And then Cunliffe puts out a recommendation to abolish #Ofwat but I don't think he can have that without want wanting to get rid of Environment Agency.
I am not optimistic that this review of the water industry is going to bring meaningful improvements.
Given that the scope of the review explicitly ruled out nationalisation before the review even started, how can we be sure that keeping the water industry in private hands is the best option?
Especially as experience so far tells us that privatisation has failed miserably.
Generally, it was expected today that Steve Reed was going to announce the dismantling of #ofwat prior to John Cuncliffe's Report, but he has bottled it and the British public are stuck with the 250 people who work for Ofwat incapable of doing much
Somebody has been speaking to Mr Reed.
There are forces above Labour that run my country. I truly believe this.
On Monday, Sir John Cuncliffe will publish his report into the state of the UK Water Industry
To get ahead of this tomorrow, Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, will be on #BBCLauraK and #TrevorPhillips during which he will announce the closure of the tissue tiger that is #Ofwat
But what will replace it?
Isn't it high time that full nationalisation takes place? Isn't this the opportunity?
“Keir Starmer just got schooled over nationalising water companies”
by James Wright in The Canary @thecanaryuk @UKLabour @BBC5Live
@BBCRadio4
@guardian @Independent @thetimes
“Ewan McGaughey, professor of law at King’s College London, has informed Keir Starmer that bringing the water industry into public ownership would actually cost nothing”
But #OFWAT seems to have overlooked the many egregious pollution-related public health failures committed by South West Water!!!!
Why ffs???
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/south-west-water-sewage-pollution-9432674
oh goody. Another fine that'll be passed on in bills to us, and not used for repairs while the shareholders rake in the profits. Public ownership, now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgeg5vy9q8eo 
(Edit: supposedly the penalties have been ordered to be "paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers", but I have zero hope of that actually happening in reality right now.)
This may be the biggest ever penalty, but I'm still not convinced it's a meaningful deterrent.
First, it's only about 5% of their revenue.
Second, it fines the company, not the directors. Fining the directors personally would be a much more meaningful deterrent. Do you have a pension fund? You're probably paying this fine.
And third, it clearly didn't work as a deterrent, because if it did, they wouldn't have broken the law in the first place.
About damned time, though giving OFWAT the power to ban bonuses for failure and actually having it happen are quite different things.
#ThamesWater are going to use £1.5billion pounds out of the £3billion pounds that they have been recently allowed to receive to appeal against the #ofwat decision to limit the amount of money they can charge customers.
That is fucking outrageous!
