Useless Ofwat is the water companies’ whore – the drought is due to an excess of greed, not a lack of water

Most of our water companies (and electricity and gas firms) have foreign owners. Why would this be? Is it because foreigners just want to help the British by supplying our water, gas and electrity? Is it because they’re charitable? Not exactly. It’s because our regulators (Ofwat – water: Ofgem – gas and electricity) are so utterly useless that these foreign utility companies can earn profits of over 30% a year in Britain, while regulators in their home countries restrict them to profits of 5% to 10%. Ofwat is probably our worst regulator as it constantly helps water companies against the interests of their customers. Despite the water companies making extortionate profits while losing�about a third of our water due to leaks, Ofwat did not issue a single enforcement order in�the first fourteen years of its existence. Instead, it allowed the water companies to repeatedly increase prices (in one case by 21% in a year) while the companies bleated that they couldn’t afford to invest in reducing leaks.

Thames Water, currently claiming we’re having a drought, is one of the best examples of how our expensive regulators are in the pockets of those they are meant to regulate. Previously owned by German RWE, Thames repeatedly failed to take any action to reduce leakage while paying its executives tens of millions of pounds each year after year. Even our thieving MPs realised Ofwat was serving the water companies when the Public Accounts Committee stated “Ofwat has been passive in its regulation of the water industry”. By the way, RWE’s customers in Germany pay about half as much for their water as RWE’s British customers. When Ofwat did suggest to Thames that they should invest just a few of their many millions in repairing leaks, owners RWE sold Thames for a �1bn profit to Australians who have continued to fleece Thames’s customers while investing as little as possible in reducing leakage.

We pay over �50m a year for the useless, greedy, incompetent, self-serving bureaucrats at Ofwat and Ofgem and they do nothing for us. Meanwhile, the owners of our water, gas and electricity companies cannot believe their luck at how much money they’re allowed to make in Britain because our regulators don’t regulate.�Moreover, our greedy, thieving politicians don’t give a toss as many of them are paid huge “consultancy” fees by the water, electricity and gas companies so they’re not going to rock the boat. Once again we’re being fleeced by worthless, overpaid, overpensioned bureaucrats and politicians.