"Ofwat has fined Thames Water just £1 after the regulator found that the group misreported sewer flooding data in 2010 which, in turn, impacted the amount the firm charged customers.
Ofwat, formally known as The Water Services Regulation Authority, confirmed in a statement that Thames Water agreed to "pay a package worth £86m [€109m, $147m] to customers and the communities it serves."
However, out of that total value, only £7m will be given back to customers. A total of £2m will be placed in a fund to help those who are having difficulty paying their bills, while the remaining £5m will "support additional community projects such as local programmes to better protect rivers and improve the natural environment."
The bulk of the "pay package" (£79m) actually constitutes a promise to reduce Thames' regulatory capital value (RCV )- which refers to asset costs and investment that has been put into the water company – in order to "benefit customers for years to come."
RCV is used for setting bills so, if this number is reduced, consumer bills will be lower."
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
Thames Water Fined £1
As per International Business Times:
Monday, 12 August 2013
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:
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!
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
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!
Monday, 10 June 2013
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%.
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).
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
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?
Maybe next year they will have fixed all their leaks, so that a ban will not be necessary?
Friday, 8 June 2012
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.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.
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!
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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."
Monday, 23 April 2012
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?
Saturday, 7 April 2012
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:
Could it be possible that its "leakage targets" are not particularly challenging?
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.Oh, and by the way, Thames Water increased its prices by 6.7% at the end of March.
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."
Could it be possible that its "leakage targets" are not particularly challenging?
Saturday, 17 March 2012
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
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
Monday, 29 June 2009
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
Source The Guardian
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