3 articles
Charges against the ex-Southern Water boss expose how regulators accepted falsified compliance data for years while discharges continued.
Privatised water companies raised £10.5bn in green bonds since 2017, promising environmental gains, while sewage pollution surged and dividends flowed to shareholders. Regulators collect fines but permit ongoing decay.
Five English water companies have successfully argued for higher bills to cover infrastructure failures they were supposed to maintain. The Competition and Markets Authority approved an additional £556 million in charges, on top of already planned 36% increases over five years. This comes as serious pollution incidents by water firms jumped 60% in a single year, highlighting a troubling pattern of privatized monopolies profiting from public goods while failing to deliver essential services.