So much for OFWAT – the toothless and supine ‘regulator’ of the Water Industry. Whilst OFWAT have allowed Thames Water to increase charges by 35% – BY 2030 – one resident, a regular viewer of Marlborough.news has shown the true scale of their increase is greater, for just one year. – 40% more for 2025-26 than for 2024-25. A single year increase. Not over a Five Year Period.
This viewer has shown that the overall increase they were being charged between 2019 and 2024 was 39%. Suddenly that figure is exceeded by a single year charge increase – of almost £200.
How can Thames Water justify this? Us, as consumers are paying for what their shareholders extracted as dividends, taking obscene sums out as dividends, sums that were created by increased borrowings, all of which created a debt mountain which most of this exploitative charge is now going towards servicing. This debt mountain is now approaching £20bn. We pay, they got paid. But they forgot to do what they are there for, to maintain the basic levels of service to ‘their customers’, i.e. us…..
Thames Water are a monopoly. A ‘private’ monopoly protected by law. There is no competition, we have no choice. What happens if we object to this outrageous demand? We get dragged through the courts, risking even jail if we continue to refuse to pay these increases, and running the gauntlet of credit rating problems, making it impossible for us to transact normally via our banks or everyday credit arrangements.
Do Thames Water have this right? No, not morally. But legally, yes. Will their ‘regulator’ – OFWAT – cry foul and say ‘No’? No. They will – if past experience is anything to go by just say ‘oh dear’ you shouldn’t have done that, but don’t worry, we won’t do anything’……
And all this while, not even when it rains we run the risk of getting poisoned if we stray into the River Kennet, something that some in this area already have had to endure.
We ran a piece a while ago about a letter that some residents received stating that bills would be increasing by an average ‘£19 per month’. Thames Water spokespeople did not deny this, but neither did they confirm. That increase would have been just over 50%, what they are now looking to extract from us is 40% more for the coming year than for the current year.
Maybe their shareholders, directors and senior managers – or those of their parent company Kemble Water Holdings Ltd – should be made to go for a swim in one of their rivers – the Kennet? – on a day when it has rained. Somehow, that would be unlikely as they know what they are doing. And they will be just laughing all the way to the bank, but not that of the river…….
New artist’s exhibition celebrates the local landscape
