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?

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.

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

Perversity

In a rather perverse move, given the water shortage that the UK faces in the summer and the amount of water wasted by leaks, Thames Water is planning to sell off a reservoir for housing.

Needless to say the residents of Reading, where the sell off is planned, are less than happy.

Full story here.

Mayor Submits Appeal Against Thames Water

London Mayor Ken Livingstone submitted an appeal to the UK High Court against Thames Water Utilities' proposed desalination plant in Becton, in the east of the capital.

Livingstone is appealing last month's approval to build the facility, saying the government didn't give "proper consideration to the Mayor's case" and hasn't properly examined alternatives to the plant, the mayor's press office said in an e-mailed statement today.

"Thames Water should be fixing more leaks rather than finding expensive ways to spend Londoners' money on making fresh water," Livingstone said in the statement.

"Adding 200 million pounds to Londoners' water bills to spend on technology more appropriate for the desert is simply a disgrace. I cannot sit back and allow this to happen."

Source Reuters

Leaks 'R Us

Thames Water is to spend almost £1bn tackling leaks in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last summer's costly water shortages.

The company expects to spend £900m next year improving and replacing its ageing Victorian pipe network. Last year, infrastructure spending rose 41pc to £779m.

The increased spending follows the uproar last year after Thames revealed that it was losing 894m litres of water a day, enough to fill 344 Olympic-sized swimming pools. At the time, it had imposed an unpopular hosepipe ban and posted an 31pc rise in full-year profits.

Industry watchdog Ofwat, criticised by MPs for not being tough enough, demanded Thames spend an extra £40 per customer on reducing leakage over the next three years.

Source The Telegraph

The Best Laid Plans

Meetings between the council and Thames Water have been arranged to ensure the borough does not come to a standstill while leaking Victorian pipework is being replaced.

The start date for work on the town centre has been postponed to avoid the January sales period. So far the two parties have agreed that managers from Thames will meet regularly with council members during the 18-month project.

Source Croydon Guardian

The Big Dig

Thames Water has been lambasted for failing to give early warning of a two-year, £20million project to replace Victorian water pipes in Croydon town centre.

The replacement works are described as the biggest engineering job in the borough since Tramlink was introduced.

They are expected to bring traffic in the town centre to its knees when work begins in the new year with residents, workers and motorists facing up to two years of congestion misery.

Croydon Council said it was "appalled" by the lack of early warning and said Thames Water's "bombshell" was dropped during an informal meeting earlier this month - despite the company last month denying intentions to carry out work.

Council leader Mike Fisher said: "Although we welcome Thames' investment in dealing with leaks, we are horrified at what this could mean for disruption in the town centre.

"Once again we have been left at the mercy of utilities who appear to be able to do what they want, when they want invariably leaving the council to take the public flak.

Thames' water mains replacement works will be the biggest engineering job in the town since Tramlink was built. That was planned in detail many months ahead with ongoing communication with everyone with an interest.

We will be making every effort to ensure Thames adopts a similar approach to damage limitation and that they co-ordinate their activity with other utilities so that we don't suffer further bouts of disturbance right after they finish."

The area of the works will be between Roman Way, Coombe Road, Mayday Hospital and Cherry Orchard Road. Thames Water is thought to want to carry out all of the work simultaneously.

Croydon Council is calling for strict rules to minimise the disruption, which includes delaying the start of the project until after the January retail sales period and work being carried out 24 hours a day in non-residential areas to get it finished sooner. It also wants to ensure compensation procedures are in place for businesses' lost revenue.

A Thames Water spokesman said:

"Details of the £9million works planned, including street names and expected duration, have still to be finalised, although work is not expected to begin until late January at the earliest. We will continue to liaise with the council and will ensure that the public is kept informed."

Source Croydon Guardian

Pity that they didn't keep us informed about some of the times that they have cut off our water!!!

Leaks 'R Us II

Council leaders are calling on Thames Water to reduce water leakages in the capital. They are urging water regulator OFWAT to impose stiff fines on the company.

Thames recently said it it spends about £500,000 a day on fixing leaks and replacing water mains.

But the the Association of London Government said that the company's repeated failure to reduce leakage rates has put the health and hygiene of Londonders at risk.

A spokesman said:

"We now have a situation where the company is applying for a drought order and goodness knows what possible cost to local businesses or at what risk to the public health of residents if water rationing is imposed.

Every day millions of litres of water are being wasted because of leaking water pipes and poor infrastructure."

Source Croydon Guardian