A Lib Dem Perspective August 2022
A LibDem Perspective
The summer holidays are drawing to a close, and buckets, spades and bathing togs are returned to storage. A hosepipe ban is belatedly imposed, and immediately the heavens open, bringing relief to our farmers, growers and gardeners. Water company bosses and the politicians to whom they answer desperately hope that the righteous outcry over raw sewage releases and water shortages will quickly fade from the collective memory, pushed out of the headlines by the energy and cost of living crises. And someone else can pick up the bill for putting water right, later.
I get a bit fed up when I hear Ministers blaming it all on the age of our water infrastructure, for both supply and disposal, and the fact that so much of it dates from Victorian times. The first point to make is that the Conservatives have wielded power for two thirds of the last 100 years, so have to take the major responsibility for lack of action. They also have to take the lion's share of responsibility for a broken planning system that pays little heed to the impact of new housing on old sewers.
Prior to privatisation, it was Margaret Thatcher's government that curtailed the ability of Regional Water Authorities to raise money for capital projects, and then used their lack of investment as an argument for privatising them. When the EU had the audacity to introduce tighter legislation on the quality of drinking and bathing water, with an estimated cost of £24-30 billion to bring our infrastructure up to scratch, that provided the excuse to push privatisation through after the 1987 general election. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, water remains in public ownership, and since 2001 water in Wales has been in the hands of a not-for-profit company. England became the only country in the world to have a fully privatised water and sewerage system. Over 70% of shares are held by overseas banks, hedge funds, governments and billionaires- none of whom are likely to be seen anywhere near our beaches. Water company bosses' bonuses actually increased by 20% last year, while owners have taken £72 billion in dividends since privatisation, money that should have been used to re-line leaking water supply pipes, increase sewage and floodwater treatment capacity, and install the monitoring equipment they should already have in place.
The recently announced target to stop storm sewage discharges by 2050 is simply unacceptable. LibDem research suggests that by 2030 there will still be 325,000 dumps of raw sewage onto our beaches lakes and rivers, within the approved targets. Re-privatisation would enable all those dividend payments to be invested in improving the infrastructure. As long ago as 1884, Liberal politician Joseph Chamberlain initially proposed nationalisation of water supply and sewerage, arguing "It is difficult, if not impossible, to combine the citizens' rights and interests, and the private enterprise's interests, because the private enterprise aims at its natural and justified objective, the biggest possible profit". How true that is!
Cllr Kathryn Field