Andy Burnham has said the public need to stop being “treated as a bottomless source of funding” for the failure of water companies after firms were given the green light to increase bills by £3.4bn in the coming years.
This week, 13 water firms in England and Wales were told by the regulator Ofwat that they could spend £3.4bn more than planned on infrastructure and environmental measures.
Almost a third of the extra funding will be to make sure services are maintained, whilst the money will also be used to meet rising demand from housebuilding and data centres and to address pollutants known as “forever chemicals”.
READ NEXT: Feargal Sharkey calls on government to ‘seize’ Thames Water as nationalisation moves step closer
But the extra spending will have to be passed on to customers, with the public facing further increases to water bills as a result.
This comes off the back of £104bn of investment approved in 2024 which meant bills would increase by 36% over the second half of this decade.
Burnham accuses firms of treating customers as ‘blank cheque’
Following the news of the extra spending, prime minister Andy Burnham accused the companies of treating customers “as a bottomless source of funding” for the industry’s failings.
The PM said he was “angry” that households “have been asked to pay more for years, yet serious pollution incidents are at record levels and the pipes are still leaking,” the Guardian reports.
“None of which is the bill-payers’ fault, who should not be treated as a bottomless source of funding for other people’s failures,” Burnham said.
He added: “Customers cannot be treated as a blank cheque. Where water companies seek to pass unnecessary costs on to households, they will be challenged.”
The timeline and scale of bill increases will vary for customers depending on their provider.
Five of the companies – Severn Trent Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, Wessex Water, and South East Water – will increase bills to cover the extra spending before 2030. The remaining eight firms – Anglian Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Hafren Dyfrdwy, Northumbrian Water, Wouth West Water, United Utiliites, Yorkshire Water, SES Water – will increase bills after 2030.
After years of supply disruption, pipe issues and sewage being pumped into rivers, lakes and seas, it sticks in the throat for customers to once again be asked to foot the bill.
Bill increases are an ‘insult’ and ‘daylight robbery’
Amy Fairman, from campaign group River Action, said the bill hikes were an “insult”, and called on Burnham to act by taking water companies into public ownership.
Meanwhile, Kierra Box, water campaigner at Friends of the Earth said England’s waterways were “chock full of filthy sewage and chemicals, which have seen next to no improvement despite recent bill hikes.”
She added the bill increases were “daylight robbery” after “decades of water company inaction on upgrading our crumbling water infrastructure,” the BBC reports.
The water companies argue they will be able to address these issues thanks to the extra spending, by using the money to replace pipes, build treatment plants and establish new reservoirs.
Ofwat has also said if the companies do not deliver the expected improvements for customers and the environment they will be able to ‘claw back’ the money.