Britain’s privatised water and sewage companies paid £1.4bn in dividends in 2022, up from £540mn the previous year, despite rising household bills and a wave of public criticism over sewage outflows.
Gill Plimmer www.ft.com (Extract)
The figures, based on a Financial Times analysis of the 10 largest water and sewage companies’ accounts, are higher than headline dividends in the year to end March 2022. This is because several have layered corporate structures with numerous subsidiaries, only one of which — the operating company — is regulated by Ofwat.
Maintaining dividends means less money is available from customer bills for investment in critical infrastructure such as sewage treatment and water mains.
The complex arrangements enable providers to distinguish between internal dividends — payments between intermediate holding companies in the group — and external dividends to private equity, sovereign wealth and pension funds, which own the entire water and sewage business including the holding companies….
After being sold with no debt at privatisation three decades ago, the companies have racked up borrowings of £60.6bn, according to Ofwat.
At the same time total spending on waste water infrastructure by the 10 largest companies — excluding Thames Tideway — has failed to rise significantly. Average annual wastewater investment was £295mn in the 1990s, £297mn in the 2010s and £273mn in the 2020s so far.
Now costs — including interest payments — are soaring, adding to pressure on company finances just as they face demands to ramp up investment in infrastructure…..
After being sold with no debt at privatisation three decades ago, the companies have racked up borrowings of £60.6bn, according to Ofwat.
At the same time total spending on waste water infrastructure by the 10 largest companies — excluding Thames Tideway — has failed to rise significantly. Average annual wastewater investment was £295mn in the 1990s, £297mn in the 2010s and £273mn in the 2020s so far.Now costs — including interest payments — are soaring, adding to pressure on company finances just as they face demands to ramp up investment in infrastructure…….
East Devon Watch 
Water companies are now just taking the piss. The £1.4 bn they pay in dividends is wasted money – very little of it is going to the share owning democracy of the kind that Margaret Thatcher imagined would develop from her privatising spree. It flies away to institutional money farms in the British Virgin Islands or other tax havens – so is virtually lost to our economy. You may see a few quid if your pension funder has a few shares, but even that will be small fry. Why in heaven’s name is a prospective Labour Government not making noises about renationalising water services simply as good for the economy. Water services have failed due to privatisation – you have to be brain dead to miss that fact, or not to notice the political momentum for a return to public, not private, services.
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