Water UK boss: ‘Modest increases’ in water bills to pay for modernisation of sewage system
Earlier today, water companies announced they will be investing £10bn over the next seven years to modernise the UK’s sewage system and stop sewage dumping in the nation’s waterways.
The chair of Water UK, Ruth Kelly, has told Sky News that water companies are “sorry”, saying she has been “chastened” by hearing people’s views on the industry, and says water bosses understand “how upset and angry people are” about sewage spills.
She insisted the industry is “determined” to put that right with the new investment announced today.
“We get it, we should have acted sooner,” she admitted, but also said they’ve only had the data showing the extent of sewage spills for a few years.
Nonetheless, she said: “We want to go as fast as we possibly can to try and reduce the number of skills.”
Asked where the £10bn will come from, Ms Kelly said that although water company shareholders will foot the initial bill, there will be a rise in water bills over the coming years.
“What we’re doing is we’re asking shareholders to put a multibillion down payment to try and put this problem right.
“The way this system works is that over the lifetime of the asset, customers do pay that money back in modest increases in their bills.”
She added that “real water bills have fallen” for the average consumer over recent years.
Asked why bills will rise when £1.4bn in dividends was paid out to shareholders last year, Ms Kelly said she doesn’t recognise the figure, and said three of the 10 companies actually made a loss.
She said the water industry will need to attract “hundreds of billions of investment” over the next few decades in competition with other sectors.
Therefore, she said, “it’s right that a dividend ought to be paid, but as I said, the dividends have been at fairly low levels compared to other sectors.”
