The water regulator Ofwat has announced a “record” fine for notorious Thames Water – for illegal sewage leaks, spills, and dumping. Of course, it’s unlikely to bother the toxic water company, as the £104m fine is just 66% of its annual profits last year – never mind what it paid to shareholders.
Ofwat: ‘record fines’ for water companies
Ofwat said on Tuesday 6 July it proposed to fine three of England’s biggest water suppliers a combined £168m for failure over sewage management. The regulator said Thames Water, Britain’s biggest supplier and which is struggling to stay afloat financially, could be fined the largest amount at £104m.
The regulator’s decision comes as Britain’s water industry faces huge scrutiny, including from the new Labour government and environmentalists, over the pollution of rivers and other waterways. It said:
Ofwat has today proposed that three water companies will be fined a total of £168m for failing to manage their wastewater treatment works and networks, as part of the first batch of outcomes from its biggest ever investigation.
Yorkshire Water could be fined £47m and Northumbrian Water £17m, it added.
Ofwat chief executive David Black said:
Ofwat has uncovered a catalogue of failure by Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water in how they ran their sewage works and this resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows.
Our investigation has shown how they routinely released sewage into our rivers and seas, rather than ensuring that this only happens in exceptional circumstances as the law intends.
Thames Water: £104m is a drop in the ocean
As BBC News reported:
Ofwat can fine companies up to 10% of their annual sales. In the case of Thames Water, the proposed fine is 9% of sales, which Mr Black told the BBC “reflects the severity of the offences”.
The regulator found that more than two-thirds of Thames Water’s wastewater treatment works had operational issues, and that most of Yorkshire Water’s wastewater treatment works had regularly spilled sewage into the environment since 2018 pointing to a “systematic issue”.
However, a quick dip into the murky depths of Thames Water’s 2023/24 annual accounts shows that £104m is hardly a bank-breaking figure for the notorious company.
For example, it paid its executive board a total of nearly £3.3m in pay and other perks. It’s key management personnel were paid nearly £9m.
And Thames Water’s profit before tax was £157m. Overall, it raked in £2.5bn in revenue.
Of course, the company claims it is on the brink – because of years of mismanagement and plundering of the public. Yet the crooks at Thames Water signed off on £150m of dividends, anyway – once again, dwarfing the Ofwat fine.
So, £104m is in all honesty a drop in the ocean to Thames Water. What a shitty ocean it is, too – because its bosses will probably cry foul.
Featured image via the Canary
Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
