Water firms warned: Rise in bills must not line chiefs’ pockets

The Chancellor has warned water firms that any rise in customer bills must be used to rebuild ‘crumbling’ infrastructure rather than enrich shareholders or executives.

Rachel Reeves said regulators must keep a tight grip on the industry even as the Government mounts a wider attack on red tape.

Customers face average bill rises of £94, or 21 per cent, over the next five years – though water firms had called for even bigger increases.

‘If prices are going to go up,’ said Reeves, ‘it’s really important that all of that money goes into investment, rather than share buybacks, dividends and bonus payments.’

Figures in April showed England and Wales’s 16 water firms had paid £78 billion in dividends in the three decades since privatisation in 1991 while chalking up £64 billion in debt, the Financial Times said.

Infrastructure spending totalled £190 billion, which critics say is not enough, arguing the financial model has created today’s sewage spills, high leakage and water outages.

It comes as bosses see their pay rise. Susan Davy, head of Pennon, was awarded £860,000 in total for the latest financial year, up from £543,000, despite the South West Water owner seeing an outbreak of diarrhoea caused by a parasite in Devon’s water supply this summer.

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