The water industry has been engaged in long-running discussions with regulators over investment plans that will result in price rises for households over the next five years.

“The public should not put another penny of their money anywhere near these water companies. 

“Water regulator Ofwat has already written to them. The water companies confirm it. For 33 years, we have paid them all of the funding and all of the money they’ve needed to fix this kind of plant.

“It should have been fixed decades ago. They didn’t fix it. The question we should be asking is where has our money gone? What happened to it? When do we get a refund? And how dare they have the audacity to now demand that bill payers pay them a second time for a service we didn’t even get the first time round.”

“Customers cannot be penalised for sins of the past”. Feargal Sharkey (April 13)

Helen Cahill www.thetimes.co.uk

The utility operators published their proposals in October to outline how they would reduce leakage, pollution and sewage spills across their networks between 2025 and 2030 and how the investments would affect people’s bills.

Ofwat has told companies to bill customers only for new investments, rather than putting right “past failings”. The watchdog has been reviewing the individual business plans and will report its decision on the proposals from each company in June.

Severn Trent

Severn Trent is seeking to raise £1 billion to help to fund expenditure of £12.9 billion over the five-year period, with customers’ bills to increase from an annual average of £379 to £518. The London-listed company, which has about 4.2 million customers in the Midlands, has pledged to reduce leakage by 16 per cent, with spillage from storm overflows to be reduced by 30 per cent. The operator is also planning to bring down pollution levels by 30 per cent.

United Utilities

United Utilities has set out proposals to spend £13.7 billion to increase the value of its regulatory capital by 8.7 per cent per year across its operations in Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

The FTSE 100 company is targeting leakage reduction of 25 per cent by 2030 and has committed to reducing floods in homes and businesses by 30 per cent.The number of pollution incidents from its network are set to fall by 25 per cent by 2030, with spillages from its wastewater systems forecast to drop by 27 per cent.

United Utilities is poised to increase average yearly bills for its customers by 14 per cent from about £455 to £518.

Pennon Group

Pennon has earmarked an additional £2.8 billion of capital investment in its water and wastewater networks, which it says represents a doubling of its investment from 2020 to 2025.

The FTSE 250 group owns South West Water, Bournemouth Water and Bristol Water and its total expenditure is set to reach £4.5 billion by the end of the decade.Pennon aims to reduce leakage by 19 per cent and to “eradicate pollutants” by the end of the decade.

The average household bill for customers of South West Water would rise by 23 per cent from £504 a year to £620 for both water and wastewater services.

Pennon increased its dividend by 8.3 per cent from 12.96p a share to 14.04p, despite a slide in profit in the half-year to the end of September. Ofwat levied a £2.15 million fine on the company for dumping sewage into rivers and the sea off Devon and Cornwall.