Proposed Amendments to the Water (Special Measures) Bill

Proposed amendments to the Water (Special Measures) Bill

1^st October 2024

Leading campaigners for clean rivers, lakes and seas are proposing changes to the government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill to stop public bailout of failing water companies. A national conference on cleaning up rivers, lakes and seas attended by over 200 campaigners, called for amendments to the Water Bill to protect customers and the environment.

“Campaign groups from across the country are outraged that the public and bill payers continue to pay for water company failure with no prospect of a clean up in time to save our rivers, lakes and seas from the devastating effects of sewage pollution.” Prof Becky Malby, Ilkley Clean River Group

The Bill as it stands allows for a public bailout overtly or by stealth and a complete betrayal of the duty to protect customers of monopoly companies providing something that no-one can give up – water. Current law allows the government to ensure that debt liability stays with the shareholders but appears to have chosen the public as the victim and the party that will have to pay up the compensation to fix the damage done to the country’s water and sewerage infrastructure

The Sewage Campaign Network with the assistance of Prof Ewan McGaughey, Professor of Law at Kings College University, London, have provided a set of amendments to protect the public from further exploitation from the broken water industry. Windrush Against Sewage has previously exposed the extent of illegal sewage discharges that catapulted Ofwat and the EA into criminal investigations of all water companies, whilst research from the University of Greenwich claims shareholders have benefitted to the tune of billions of pounds without investing.

Against this backdrop of failure of the current system the Water (Special Measures) Bill makes provision for public bailout of failing companies by requiring water companies to raise money for debt from customers. This means yet again the public is paying for profiteering.  Our amendment  ‘instructs the Secretary of State and HM Treasury to not bail-out the shareholders or creditors of any water company’.

Ashley Smith says “The government is refusing to admit the facts about the failure of privatisation, and worse,it is hiding and misrepresenting them to try to usher in yet more profiteering at our expense. The burning questions are why, and how does the public defend itself from this scam?”

The full paper can be found here  Amendments to the Water (Special Measures) Bill 04.10.2024