Thames Water Applies For Price Hike

Thames Water have applied to water regulator Ofwat to charge customers a one-off surcharge of £29 pounds. Thames Water claim that they have been forced to deal with "unquantifiable" costs that they were not aware of when Ofwat set price limits back in 2009.

The increased costs include:

• Increases in bad debt as a result of the economic downturn
• Increases to Environment Agency charges
• The costs of operating and maintaining the additional 40,000 km of sewers that were transferred to Thames Water by the government in October 2011
• Costs of land acquisition and other preparatory work required for the construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel

In the real world, companies that are eager to maintain/increase their profits seek to improve customer service, undercut the competition (ie charge less) in order to attract more customers and cut their cost base. In the delusional world of water supply, Thames Water simply opt for the easiest option namely that of charging their hapless customers more for their water. Ofwat will make its decision within 3 months.

There is of course another option, outwith cutting their cost base, they could reduce the dividends paid to their shareholders.

Will they do this?

Will they fark!

Taxing Times For Thames Water

Sky News reports that Thames Water paid no corporation tax and received £5M credit from the Treasury, whilst increasing its charges to customers by 6.7%.

By happenstance Jonson Cox, chairman of regulator Ofwat, said that the high profits and tax-reducing corporate structures of some water companies were "morally questionable".

Companies are perfectly at liberty to avoid tax. However, given that Thames Water reduces part of its tax bill by tax allowances on its investment program, it is ironic that Thames Water saw leakage of 646 million litres a day, up from 637 million litres (blamed on the cold weather).

Thames Water Lifts Hosepipe Ban

Thames Water has lifted its hosepipe ban.

Maybe next year they will have fixed all their leaks, so that a ban will not be necessary?

Thames Water Gets Bollocking From Boris

Boris Johnson has quite rightly summoned Thames Water bosses to City Hall, to give them a bollocking for flooding part of the Central Line yesterday.

The London Evening Standard reports that the mayor was “absolutely seething” after contractors broke a 24-inch mains pipe as they tried to fix a leak, leaving 300 passengers stranded underground and bringing 24 hours of chaos to the Central line.

Two million litres of water had to be pumped out of tunnels between Stratford and Mile End, before full services could be restored yesterday.

Mr Johnson, apart from wanting an explanation and assurances that Thames Water won't screw up again, also wants guarantees that Thames Water is “up to speed” in coping with the Olympics.

Good luck with that then!

Hosepipe Ban Remains

Thames Water, the company with "obscene leakage rates",  has told the Telegraph that the hosepipe ban will remain despite the fact that this was wettest April since records began in 1910.

Richard Aylard, director of sustainability and external affairs for Thames Water, said they were aware of the "irony" that heavy rain had set in after the hosepipe ban was announced.

"We had more than double the rain we would expect for the last month.

In fact, it hasn't really stopped raining since we and six other companies imposed 'hosepipe bans' on April 5. 

We are alive to this irony, and our contribution to the endless talking point that is the British weather."

Thousands of homes face a renewed risk of flooding after heavy rain lashed Britain overnight, and the rain looks set to continue.

Question For Thames Water

About this "drought" and hosepipe ban, really given that it's pissing down and will continue to do so for the coming week?

Thames Water's Obscene Leakage Rates

As hosepipe bans come into force (note, the water companies will not be enforcing these bans) it is worth noting that Thames Water, which serves 8.8 million customers, met its leakage targets over the past six years.

However, its leakage rates account for around 25% of the 2.6 billion litres it supplies a day to customers. In fact the leakage rate is five times higher than the 5% that will be saved by the hosepipe ban.

Thames Water leaks are enough to fill Wembley Stadium every 36 hours.

New Scientist’s environment consultant, Fred Pearce, said:

"Thames Water’s leakage rates are obscene.
Regulators and planning inspectors have been telling them for decades to get their act together – but the company’s efforts are sporadic and sometimes grudging."

Oh, and by the way, Thames Water increased its prices by 6.7% at the end of March.

Could it be possible that its "leakage targets" are not particularly challenging?

Thames Water Wastes Water

Thames Water sees a quarter of its total supplies wasted through leaks and burst pipes, despite hitting its Ofwat target to reduce leaks last year.

Thames Water has also been criticised for the amount of time it takes to repair leaks.

Figures obtained show that of 441 recent leaks in its area, just 210 were repaired within the five days promised by Thames Water, while 48 had still not been repaired after 20 days.

In one case Jeremy Gompertz QC reported a leak from a mains pipe into the basement of his flat in Highbury, north London, on nine separate occasions between December last year and February.

“It’s outrageous that when we’re threatened with water restrictions because of drought they can’t be bothered to come and remedy a leak which has been running for two months,” said Mr Gompertz, 41.

Elsewhere John Tamplin, a financial adviser from Henley-on-Thames, had to wait two days before Thames Water dispatched engineers to repair a burst pipe sending water gushing up through the paved drive of his home. The incident came just days after Oxfordshire was declared to be in a state of drought.

Mr Tamplin, 55, said: “I was just amazed that Thames Water could be so wasteful with the water when they are telling us to economise and look after this valuable resource.”

Thames Water has now apologised for the amount of time it takes to visit and repair leaks. A spokesman said: “We fix leaks in order of priority to prevent as much water as possible from being wasted. 

However, we recognise that in some cases the speed we fix leaks isn’t good enough. We are continually working to improve that.”

The firm, which last year made an operating profit of £600 million, pointed out it had cut leakage from its pipes by a third since its peak in 2004 and has invested millions of pounds in repairing leaks in recent years.

Source The Telegraph

Charges Up

"Thames Water said this week that it is pushing up water bills by 17%, it was accompanied by the usual stuff about overhauling our Victorian pipes. Thames Water is owned by Macquarie Bank, known as Australia's "millionaire factory" – an antipodean version of Goldman Sachs. I think we can guess where the money will trickle to."

Source The Guardian

Customer Care - Not!

Sent to Thames Water "customer services" and their CEO on 17 May. Needless to say, no one has bothered to answer:

"4 March 2009 you wrote to me advising that you owed me £120.74, and requesting that I ring you to obtain the credit.

26 March 2009 I rang and gave all necessary information, eg bank details, I was advised that the credit would be processed.

16 May 2009 I received a letter from you referring to my call of 26 March, asking for my utility bills.

16 May I rang your offshore third party "help" centre to ask why it took over 8 weeks to query the call I made in March, and why the credit had not been paid.

I asked 3 times as to why it took 8 weeks to send the letter, the first two times your "help" centre operative claimed to be looking up the details; the third time I asked she deliberately cut me off (note I know the difference between an accidental cut off and a deliberate one).

Please answer the following:

1 Why is there over an 8 week gap between my call and your letter?

2 Why do you need utility bills to process the credit repayment?

3 Why did you not ask for these when I called in March?

4 Why have you not credited my bank account with the money you owe me?

You have 24 hours for someone based in the UK (not your foreign third party call centre) to take ownership of this problem, to come back to me and resolve it to my satisfaction.

Failure to do so will result in me adding this story to my site www.thameswaterisshite.com I will also advise my many contacts in the media as to your incompetence.

BTW, do you really think that outsourcing your "help" centre to a disinterested, incompetent foreign third party really improves customer "care"?

The clock is ticking."