‘Hiking water bills to foot sewer upgrades shouldn’t fall to us - we’re paying enough’

Plans to hike water bills to help pay for the £10 billion upgrade of our Victorian sewers is disgraceful during a time when the cost of everyday goods have risen to ridiculous levels - particularly when we’re the ones who brought the sewage scandal to light.

David Henderson, chief executive of Water UK, confidently had the ability to say that raw sewage being pumped into UK rivers has become so public because more people are taking up outdoor water activities, such as wild swimming and canoeing.

He admitted the industry “didn’t really keep up with how people now expect the environment to be able to be used”.

Committee member Lord Cromwell rightly questioned Mr Henderson for appearing to blame the public for the sewage scandal, saying: “surely that isn’t the problem at all.” And it isn’t.

Mr Henderson conceded that the industry “should have woken up earlier” and “that is why we are apologising.”

But appearing to blame the public for wanting to use the beautiful outdoor spaces at our disposal - and by doing so apparently highlighting the amount of sewage in rivers - is despicable. And so is subsequently wanting to charge us more to pay to sort the problem out.

Without people calling attention to the state of our waters - and be rightly furious about it - nothing would have been done.

Yet it seems “the large bulk” of the investment to upgrade our sewer system “will fall on customers”, with the government estimating we could pay an extra £20 on water bills per year.

Documents from a focus group have revealed that Southern Water is proposing to charge customers £279 extra a year by 2030 to help reduce sewage discharges - a 73% increase. It comes after this firm was fined a record £90 million in July 2021 for deliberately pouring between 16 and 21 billion litres of raw sewage into sea.

Environment Agency data has also shown that Southern Water discharged sewage into waterways 16,668 times last year – lasting a total of 146,819 hours. So why should we have to pay for these failures?

Only now is action seemingly being taken with the introduction of the £10 billion sewer upgrade plan, while water firm CEOs have been forgoing their bonuses as they finally recognise the level of public anger over their huge payouts as sewage is continuously being released into the sea.

But now despite all of the scandal and uproar from the public, we are still facing having to pay higher water bills in years to come - when everything is already so expensive and prices have risen across the board.

Water UK already announced in February that water bills will go up from £417 a year to £448 on average due to the inflationary impact of higher energy costs, while energy bills, council tax, and broadband all increased from April.

Latest figures from Kantar, which track supermarket sales and prices, reports a grocery inflation rate of 16.5% over the four weeks to 11 June - down from the 17.2% figure revealed a month ago. But it is still the sixth highest monthly figure since 2008.

Research from Kantar also shows that people are increasingly using microwaves in a shift to simpler cooking to save money.

After a difficult time of soaring prices, it’s scandalous that water bills look set to rise in the next decade. It’s even harder to take knowing thousands and millions of pounds have been paid to water firm bosses over the years while sewage has poured into our seas - and nothing was done about it.

Anti-sewage campaign group Surfers Against Sewage revealed last summer that water companies were discharging sewage even during dry weather, when they are only legally allowed to in the event of heavy rainfall when sewers get overwhelmed.

They have been getting away with an environmental crime. And while water companies are finally saying they will step up and do something, it’s infuriating that we have to help foot the cost.

It suggests a lack of recognition of the struggles and financial hardship facing thousands of households across the country, as energy bills, inflation and food prices take their toll.

Water companies need to gain some real awareness of the situation and the anger the public feels. And don’t make us pay for their wrongdoings, failures and incapability to act - enough is enough.