MPs: No easy ride for South West Water
Commenting on South West Water’s announcement that average charges for metered properties will rise by 12.5% and by 16.1% for unmetered properties,Devon and Cornwall’s eight Liberal Democrat MPs today (Friday) condemned the rise and renewed their call for fair water bills across the country.
South West Water has attempted to head off the wave of bad publicity expected from the hike in charges by arranging meetings with each MP separately. The company had been making efforts to reduce bills for its poorest customers by helping them to use water more efficiently, but local people are expected to be hit hard by this latest increase in charges.
Commenting, North Cornwall’s MP Dan Rogerson said:
“It’s good that South West Water has made the effort to get in touch but the company cannot expect an easy ride from the Westcountry’s Liberal Democrat MPs. We’ve been fighting together on this issue for years and a simple series of meetings is not going to convince us that Devon and Cornwall are getting a fair deal.
“South West Water’s profits for last year were £32.6m. Meantime people in one of the poorest areas of the country are hit with crippling charges.
Andrew George, MP for the West Cornwall constituency of St Ives and the Isles of Scilly continued:
“Although the Company claims that it re-invests a large proportion of the ‘profit’, the dividends paid to its shareholders are predictable and high. When the Conservatives set these companies up they presented shareholders with a relatively risk free environment in which they could plan well in advance how much profit they wish to take out of the Company. They are not operating in a competitive open market.”
Torbay MP, Adrian Sanders, added:
“Last year, I introduced a Bill to Parliament that would have meant no household would have been charged more than 3% of their income on water and sewerage charges. If the Government had found the time for the Bill it could now be helping the lowest income households in the South West. Instead we are all faced with increases that just exacerbate the problem; with the greatest burden falling on those who are least able to meet it.”
Falmouth and Camborne MP, Julia Goldsworthy, continued:
“This situation has simply got worse and worse since the Conservatives first privatised the water industry in 1989. Nearly twenty years later, South West Water’s bills are unchallenged by any competition whatever, and people in Devon and Cornwall have learned the hard way that they can’t rely on Labour Ministers for help.”
