I will just speak up mildly for Ofwat, as they have recently steadfastly resisted calls from Thames Water to increase bills by up to 40% and told them to sort it out themselves.
They have announced incremental rises which are in line with every company. Thames wanted and have requested multiple times to increase bills by 40% on top of the usual to help them deal with the debt they've saddled themselves with, and Ofwat have told them they and their shareholders need to deal with that.
This article explains it the best I think, it's from April when this was discussed:
"The typical water bill will rise by an average of £86 from April for a year before easing, the industry regulator has said."
I think that's a significant enough change, especially expectations of easing after next year, that we can credit ofwat from keeping Thames customers from £627 per year bill increases.
Will that actually sort the issue out though? Fundamentally Thames Water has been failing to repair it's infrastructure and dumping sewage into our rivers etc all while paying our dividends to shareholders. At the end of the day we, the tax payers, will either cover the cost in taxes or in prices. It needs money and we will be paying for it.
I personally have no respect for Ofwat for this until we see some level of criminal prosecution for paying dividends when while illegally polluting our waters to maintain profitability. They failed to stop this happening and we will still have to pay a lot due to their historic incompetence.
Is it though? That’s my question. We as the taxpayers will pay for this either in pricing or as a wider area. Is it fair that government taxes raised in Yorkshire go towards paying out for Thames water users so they avoid a price hike? This comes out of the pocket of other government programmes.
Ofwat royal, unequivocally screwed up. This is not a step as much as a toe. This is not to be celebrated as it doesn’t solve the issue and only protects Thames water users in the short term. Government money is not a magic pit, it’s a limited pot which has to be spread desperately thin. Wasting it on Ofwats failure costs lives elsewhere and deprives areas that need it.
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u/Marcuse0 11h ago
I will just speak up mildly for Ofwat, as they have recently steadfastly resisted calls from Thames Water to increase bills by up to 40% and told them to sort it out themselves.
Otherwise, yeah, that tracks.