Customers left without water for a week in parts of Waverley & Guildford are still fighting for compensation. Recently, Thames Water offered everyone affected just £30. Would you want to pay out more if you were $ 15 billion in debt and facing privatisation?
Fuming customers complained to Thames Water’s CEO at a public meeting in Godalming about the water authority’s lack of action.
Slow compensation payments and sewage spills in Cranleigh, Godalming, Alfold, Milford, Bramley, and the surrounding areas have infuriated the public.
MPs Jeremy Hunt and Angela Richardson admitted that they have been bombarded with letters of complaint.
Those areas suffered major water outages in November, meaning many families had limited or no water supply for almost an entire week. Other areas had low pressure – and sewage spills in parts of Waverley continued unabated.
There was no water, then flooding, and now, sewage, sewage everywhere, and it stinks!
Water outages in Bramley and parts of Guildford, including Chilworth, were the last straw as Boxing Day was ruined for many—terrible timing, or what, Ofwat?
Water and flooding affected 18,000 homes, closed 60 schools, caused businesses to lose thousands of pounds in trade, and affected hospitals and care homes.
Now, across all parties, including both Waverley and Guildford Borough Councils, every effort is being made to ensure that the misery endured by TW customers won’t be repeated and that everyone affected is paid the right amount of compensation.
Ofwat’s CEO and chairman, the CEO of the Consumer Council for Water, and other Thames Water representatives attended the ticket-only meeting.
Given that a power failure caused November’s water outages, it was encouraging to hear that Shalford Water Treatment now has an uninterrupted power supply.
The meeting was also an opportunity for Chris Weston to see the widespread and continued dissatisfaction with the compensation arrangements.
As a result, he agreed to meet three representatives of the affected customers personally. In addition to the compensation payments, Thames Water has offered every affected customer £30.
Ofwat’s CEO also made its first-ever public commitment that Thames Water customers will not have to pick up the tab for Thames Water’s management failings with higher bills. However, the jury is still out on that pledge.
Thames Water nationalisation plan could move the bulk of £15bn debt to the state.
Under Whitehall’s blueprint for the water company, some lenders could lose up to 40% of their money.
The government is considering radical plans to renationalise Thames Water, with the bulk of its £15.6bn debt added to the public purse.
The blueprint, codenamed Project Timber, is being drawn up in Whitehall and would turn Britain’s biggest water company into a publicly owned, arm’s length body. Under the plans, some lenders to its core operating company could lose up to 40% of their money.
The contingency planning, which is at an advanced stage, reflects Whitehall’s deep concern about the state of a company that has become a symbol of the failure of privatisation in public utilities. It had no debt when it was taken out of public ownership in 1989.
One of the UK’s biggest nationalisations in more than a decade would pull Thames’ vast liabilities into the government’s debt figures. A new arm’s length public corporation, modelled on the company that built the £18.8bn Crossrail project, would be formed to hold the water monopoly.
The company serves 16 million customers in the London and Thames Valley regions, but its finances have been left threadbare after previous shareholders siphoned out billions of pounds of dividends. It was also hit with hefty fines for pollution and leaks. Its parent company, Kemble, recently defaulted on its debt, and Thames has said it has enough money in its operating company to cover 15 months.
Renationalisation would deeply damage the government during an election year, reversing the privatisation carried out by Margaret Thatcher’s administration.
“Renationalisation would deeply damage the government during an election year, reversing the privatisation carried out by Margaret Thatcher’s administration.”….what poppycock!