South East Water greed shines through

Water company says it can’t provide water for new homes after wasting 100 million litres every single day

South East Water has said it cannot provide water for new homes planned in the area it’s supposed to provide for. Yet in 2024 it wasted more than 100 million litres of water every day through its creaking pipes.

South East Water put profit over infrastructure

The water company has spent significantly more servicing its debt and paying shareholder dividends than it has on upgrading infrastructure. In the two years to March 2022, South East Water paid £156 million in dividends and £72.8 million in interest. Yet it spent just £179.8 million on infrastructure improvements.

This highlights that water privatisation is the key issue preventing new homes from having water in the area.

If the water company were nationalised, it could be funded by government issued, debt-free flat currency with increased taxes on extreme wealth to control any inflation from the central money creation. Even if the infrastructure were funded by the current system of government borrowing, that has a lower interest rate than the private sector takes on. So debt would be zero or lower under public ownership – offering tens of millions in funding for infrastructure improvements in those two years. And the £156 million in dividends could also have gone on infrastructure improvements.

“Cannot accommodate” housing

A spokesperson for South East Water said:

From our review of the latest housing forecast figures, we have identified that we cannot accommodate additional growth beyond what was assumed in our Water Resources Management Plan 2024 in areas where we do not have a supply-demand surplus… Specifically, in the Tonbridge and Malling area, where we currently lack available headroom in our supplies, we would be unable to accommodate any growth exceeding our 2024 forecast assumptions throughout the entire planning period.

Perhaps there would be enough water supply if the company had invested in infrastructure such as pipe maintenance and reservoirs.

Shambles

On top of being unable to provide new homes with water, the company left 30,000 homes without water in Kent and Sussex in January. And that’s not the first time. In 2023, South East Water left thousands of homes without running water.

It’s clear the profit motive is incompatible with the essential of water.

Featured image via the Canary

Tags: water privatisation

Comments 1

Tom Clother says:

3 months ago

Whilst it is demonstrably the case that South East Water have underinvested in their infrastructure since privatisation (exacerbating water shortages because of leaking and shortage of storage facilities) it is also the case that the South East of England is a water stressed area. It receives the least rainfall in Britain.

For that reason if for no other (& there are plenty of others), it should be a priority to funnel investment into the Midlands and the North of England, to encourage a better standard of living there and take some of the strain off the South East. Boost proper, electrified rail connectivity between Liverpool and (Kingston upon) Hull, work on public transport services from Newcastle upon Tyne all the way through to the West Midlands. There is a lot of productivity desperate to be unleashed that is currently held back because people cannot get around. Up till now London and the South East have had first dibs on new transport investment because of HM Treasury rules. Change those criteria. It would benefit the whole country.