Who Provides My Water?

Who provides water in Reading

Reading Water Supplier

Who owns English water?

More than 70% of England’s water industry owned by foreign companies

• Almost three quarters of England’s water industry is currently owned from overseas.
• At least 71% of shares in England’s nine privatised water companies are owned by organisations from overseas including the super-rich, banks, hedge funds, foreign governments and businesses based in tax havens.
• These revelations show the need to end the scandal of water privatisation – and on the eve of Conservative Party conference Environment Secretary Michael Gove should put water back in public hands.
• The figures come from a new investigation into company accounts as part of GMB’s,

If Michael Gove is serious about taking back control, he will end the water privatisation rip-off racket and put water back in public hands.

1. Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary
2. Earlier this week Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell announced to Labour Party Conference in Liverpool he would end the profiteering of privatised water and set up a new publicly owned water system that puts control back in the hands of the people.
3. Some of the leading overseas owners of England’s privatised water companies include:

• Malaysian company YTL Corporation Berhad which owns all of Wessex Water
• Cheung Kong Group, a multinational registered in the Cayman Islands run by family of Li Ka Shing (Hong Kong’s richest person). They own 80% of Northumbrian Water.
• U.S. hedge funds Blackrock, Lazard and Vanguard each own a stake in Severn Trent, United Utilities and South West Water
• Between Germany’s Deutsche Asset Management and US private equity company Corsair Capital own half of Yorkshire Water
• 40% of Southern Water is owned by US investment company JP Morgan Asset Management
• A third of Thames Water is owned by investment fund companies from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, China and Australia
• Australia’s Colonial First State Global Asset Management owns a stake in Anglian Water, Severn Trent, United Utilities and South West Water

In recent months, GMB investigations into England’s nine privatised water companies have revealed the following:

• Dividends worth £6.5 billion were paid out to shareholders in the past five years, with £1.4 billion paid out in 2017 alone.
• 2.4 billion litres of water is wasted through leaks every single day in England.
• CEOs of the nine privatised water company trousered a whopping £58 million in salary, bonuses, pensions and other benefits over the past five years.
• While shareholders pocketed these eye-watering sums, consumer water bills in England and Wales have increased by 40% above inflation since privatisation in 1989 according to

Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary, said: ” It’s a scandal that the supply of water that falls from England’s skies is in fact now overwhelmingly owned by overseas profiteers. If Michael Gove is serious about taking back control, he will end the water privatisation rip-off racket and put water back in public hands.

Every time we turn on the tap big businesses around the globe are making money at our expense. The spivs and speculators must be laughing at us as they make billions in profits while our water bills go up and leakages go unfixed. This is yet another damning example of a failed privatisation experiment.

GMB is campaigning to Take Back the Tap and return England’s water to its rightful owners – the public.” : More than 70% of England’s water industry owned by foreign companies

Who owns water companies?

English water companies work for a handful of shareholders around the world, while pouring sewage into our rivers and seas and allowing water to leak from the pipes. We should copy Scotland and France, and bring water into public ownership. The history Margaret Thatcher privatised water in England and Wales in 1989 – she couldn’t get away with it in Scotland so they have publicly-owned Scottish Water.

Welsh Water is now a not for profit. England has a unique model of privatisation. We didn’t just give private companies a right to operate, we sold off our assets and infrastructure wholesale. Your private water company has a monopoly in your area and there is no market, you have no choice about the water company you use.

Privatisation was supposed to mean lower bills and a better service but the opposite has happened. Privatisation is a legalised scam. Since the 1990s, investment from the privatised English water companies has gone down 15%, and they’ve built up a debt mountain of over £60 billion (paid for by us).

Meanwhile, shareholders have received £72billion – £2 billion a year on average. The privatised English water companies pour raw sewage into our rivers and seas, which kills fish and wildlife and makes people ill. A huge amount of water is leaked away every day. Instead of spending money on infrastructure to tackle sewage and leaks, the water companies prioritise their shareholders.

We rely on Ofwat and the under-funded Environment Agency to slap their wrists when it goes wrong. Who owns our water? The English water companies are more than 70% owned by shareholders abroad, for example: • Wessex Water is 100% owned by a Malaysian company, YTL • Northumbrian Water is owned by Hong Kong businessman Li Ka Shing • Thames Water is partly owned by investors from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, China and Australia Read more about water company ownership in England (see table 1) Welsh Water is a not for profit.

• Since privatisation, £72 billion has gone to shareholders – around £2 billion a year on average
• The water companies have built up a debt mountain of over £60 billion and used this to finance dividends for shareholders
• The average pay for a water company CEO is £1.7 million a year, The biggest earner is Steve Mogford, CEO of United Utilities, on £2.9 million
• Our bills have gone up by 40% in real terms since privatisation
• Water companies are leaking away 2.4 billion litres of water a day (up to a quarter of their supply)
• The Environment Agency has said that by 2050 some rivers will see 50-80% less water during the summer months – so water is a precious resource we need to conserve
• Every day, the water companies discharge raw sewage into our rivers and seas more than 1000 times on average – over 9 million hours since 2016
• Only 14 percent of English rivers are considered to have good ecological status
• In Scotland, water is in public ownership. Bills are lower and rivers and seas are cleaner
• Publicly owned Scottish Water has spent £72 more per household per year (35% more) than the English water companies. If England had invested at this rate, an extra £28 billion would have gone into the infrastructure to tackle problems like leaks and sewage
• In France, a number of cities have brought water back into public ownership. They didn’t sell off the assets like England did which means they can just wait until contracts come to an end
• In Paris water came back into public ownership in 2011. The publicly owned company L’Eau de Paris has built still and sparkling water fountains throughout the city!
• 69% of the British public want water back in public hands
• 70% of Red Wall voters want water in public ownership

Photo credit: Fraz Ismat FAQs Can’t regulation fix the problem? For more on this, see our new blog here. However to sum up, we’ve been trying regulation for 34 years, since privatisation in 1989, and it has failed. That’s why we’re in this mess. Research looking at the role of regulation in water networks confirms “private equity investors have found innovative financial mechanisms for increasing investor returns that are unrelated to productive activity The regulatory toolbox, governed by a narrative of competition, has consistently been biased towards investors the regulator is caught in an impossible bind in meeting the contradictory and contested interests of investors, end users and the state”.

1. Privatised water companies are at no risk of ever losing their monopolies, there is no competition. In fact as it stands, we have to give them an absurd 25 years notice if we want to take back our water.
2. Ofwat, the regulator, is hopelessly captured – there’s a revolving door between people working at the water companies and people working in Ofwat. This makes it very unlikely that it will do a good job of holding the water companies to account.
3. The Environment Agency is hopelessly underfunded, Its funding has been cut by 50% over the past decade so it’s very difficult for it to hold water companies to account. Staff are not being allowed to do the job of protecting our environment.
4. The fines water companies have to pay are too small to have any impact. Water companies see them as the cost of doing business and go ahead and pollute.
5. The water companies are set up to prioritise making a profit for their shareholders. This means they are incentivised to invest as little as possible in the infrastructure. They walk away with £1.5 billion in dividends for shareholders every year on average (and £1.7 million for CEO salaries). Instead of having water companies with a public mission and public accountability, these companies have to deliver for their shareholders first, and the rest of us second. Given that stopping sewage requires serious investment, why would we be pouring all this money down the drain? Publicly owned Scottish Water has spent £72 more per household per year (35% more) than the privatised English water companies. If England had invested at this rate, an extra £28 billion would have gone into the infrastructure to tackle problems like leaks and sewage.

Don’t the private companies bring investment? No – in fact they extract value. As research has highlighted ” companies could have afforded to finance all their operations and investments without taking on any debt at all. Instead, evidence suggests their debt taking was driven by overly high dividends”.

• So e very penny of the water companies’ investment in water infrastructure has been covered by our bills.
• See our video explainer here too.
• The UK was ‘the dirty man of Europe’ before privatisation? A lot has changed over the past 30 years.
• Water companies improved their game because of EU law, not because of privatisation.

They started out with a green dowry of £1.5 billion from the government. Scottish Water, in public hands, has cleaner rivers and seas. How could we take back our water and how much would it cost? Taking back our water means buying back the water companies so they can be publicly owned, like Scottish Water.

This isn’t a particularly radical thing to do – right now in the energy industry the Conservative government has quietly taken some duties from National Grid to create a publicly owned Future System Operator by 2024 to plan for net zero. It is passing legislation and arranging compensation for shareholders.

Bringing the privatised English water companies into public ownership would involve a similar process. Parliament can decide on an appropriate level of compensation for shareholders, depending what it thinks is in the public interest. This decision can take into account, for example, the outrageously bad track record of the water companies – how little they have contributed over the years and how much they’ve already extracted in profit.

If we gave the shareholders back what they put in (i.e. the equity value of the shares) it would cost just under £15 billion to buy back the water companies. We would save around £2.5 billion a year because we wouldn’t have to pay out shareholder dividends and borrowing costs are lower in the public sector.

Bringing water into public ownership pays for itself in around 6 years on that basis. One option that wouldn’t cost the public anything and that we could start right now would be to take shares not fines from water companies when they pollute. This would kick off the process of taking back our water, help clamp down on profiteering polluters, and give local communities more say.

What about pensions? Over 90% of the English water companies are owned by international investors, private equity funds, and banks. Only 8.5% of shareholders in the water sector are UK pension funds, Pension managers minimise risk by spreading investment, and small fluctuations in value are normal. The impact on funds is tiny in relation to the investments of each fund as a whole.

Even if investors in UK water and energy grids were, in total, notionally ‘losing’ £40 billion short of ‘true market value’, the 0.8 % of that ‘loss’ that affects UK pension funds is minimal. As University of Greenwich research outlines, this represents less than 0.1% of the £2,200 billion investments by UK pension funds – much less than the average daily fluctuation in the price of investments.

Do I have a water meter

Where is my water meter? – Watch our video on how you can find and read your water meter. Most water meters are fitted outside near your outside stop tap. It will be under a small metal or plastic cover in your driveway, garden or nearby footpath. Sometimes these can be a bit further down the road.

If your meter is indoors it can usually be found under the kitchen sink by your inside stop tap. Sometimes meters are in basements and garages, also. You’ll need to check you have the right meter by matching the serial number to the one on your bill. Occasionally, outside meters might be in shared pits, not individual ones.

The covers for these can be heavy, so we don’t recommend you attempt to read them yourself. Please wait for your scheduled reading or if you have concerns about your bill. If your meter appears broken or damaged, please,

Was water ever free?

But by 1920, most U.S. cities offered free, filtered, chlorinated water, which dramatically improved public health. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, half of the decreases in deaths in major cities was due to clean water.

Who supplies water in UK?

Yorkshire Water – What area does Yorkshire Water supply? Yorkshire Water supplies water and sewerage services to Yorkshire. About Yorkshire water Yorkshire Water is the main UK subsidiary of the Kelda Group, which provides water and waste water services to customers in the UK and USA.

• Yorkshire Water provides water and sewerage services to 1.7 million households, deriving 78% of its water supply from rivers and reservoirs and the other 22% from boreholes and aquifers.
• Yorkshire Water then supplies the water via 116 water treatment works and 30,000km of water mains.
• Yorkshire Water also collects a billion litres of waste water and sewage each day, which is then treated in Yorkshire Water’s 612 waste water treatment works.

Water hardness Yorkshire Water is generally a hard water area. However, water hardness levels can vary within each area. Yorkshire Water can provide you with further information about water hardness in your particular area.

Is UK the only country with privatised water

Process – The Conservative government of the day had originally proposed water privatisation in 1984 and again in 1986, but strong public feeling against the proposals led to plans being shelved to prevent the issue influencing the 1987 general election,

Having won the election, the privatisation plan was “resurrected and implemented rapidly.” The newly created, privately owned, water and sewerage companies (WSCs) paid £7.6 billion for the regional water authorities. At the same time, the government assumed responsibility for the sector’s total debts amounting to £5 billion and granted the WSCs a further £1.5 billion—a so-called “green dowry “—of public funds.

The ten privatised regional water authorities were:

• Anglian Water (previously Anglian Water Authority)
• Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water (previously Welsh Water Authority )
• North West Water (previously North West Water Authority)
• Northumbrian Water (previously Northumbrian Water Authority)
• Severn Trent Water (previously Severn Trent Water Authority)
• Southern Water (previously Southern Water Authority)
• South West Water (previously South West Water Authority)
• Thames Water (previously Thames Water Authority )
• Wessex Water (previously Wessex Water Authority)
• Yorkshire Water (previously Yorkshire Water Authority)

The process of privatisation also created three new regulatory bodies:

• the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), responsible for monitoring potable water quality;
• the National Rivers Authority (now the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales ), responsible for monitoring river and environmental pollution, flood risk management on major rivers, freshwater fisheries, water resource management and conservation of the natural environment; and
• the Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, responsible for setting the price regime that water companies are required to follow and monitoring performance of the new water companies.

England and Wales became the only countries in the world to have a fully privatised water and sewage disposal system. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, water and sewerage services remained in public ownership. Since 2001, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, the company which supplies drinking water and wastewater services to most of Wales and parts of western England, has operated as a single-purpose, not-for-profit company with no shareholders, “run solely for the benefit of customers”.

Who is the largest water owner in the world?

Veolia Water Water supply and treatment division of French company Veolia Environnement

Veolia Water TypeIndustry, and Founded1853 ; 170 years ago ( 1853 ) Headquarters, Key people Jean-Michel Herrewyn (Chief Executive Officer) Revenue €12.5 billion Number of employees 95,789ProxiserveSEDE EnvironnementSétudeSeurecaSIDEFVeolia Water Solutions & TechnologiesWebsite Veolia Water (formerly Vivendi Water, originally ) is the of the French company and the world’s largest supplier of,

Who owns the most drinking water

Freshwater can be defined as the water with less than 500 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved salts. Ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater are the sources of freshwater. In this article we are giving the list of top 10 Countries with Freshwater Resources which are listed on the basis of the stats from the United Nations Environment Programme.

Water is essential for all socio-economic development and for maintaining healthy ecosystems. As population increases and development calls for increased allocations of groundwater and surface water for the domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors, the pressure on water resources intensifies, leading to tensions, conflicts among users, and excessive pressure on the environment.

The process by which water continually changes its form and circulates between oceans, atmosphere and land is known as the water cycle. The earth is covered by three-fourth of water.97.3% water is saline or salty in ocean and seas, 3% is fresh water that consisting ice-cape, ground water, fresh water lakes, inland and salt lakes.

Fresh water (or freshwater) is any naturally occurring water except seawater and brackish water. In other words, we can say water with less than 500 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved salts. Ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater are the sources of freshwater.

Top 10 Countries with Freshwater Resources The top Countries with Freshwater Resources are listed on the basis of the stats from the United Nations Environment Programme are given below: 1. Brazil Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 8,233 Brazil has highest freshwater resources in the world which is accounts for approximately 12% of the world’s freshwater resources.

• It is just because Amazon region this country contains 70% of the total freshwater.2.
• Russia Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 4,508 Russia has second largest freshwater reserve which is approximately 1/5 of freshwater in the world.3.
• United States of America Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 3,069 USA is the third country in the world which has largest freshwater reserve.

There are more than 100 lakes; and Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, and Lake Erie are the major lakes. What is Water footprint? 4. Canada Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 2,902 This is the fourth country in the world which has largest freshwater reserve.

1. Here, freshwater is found in its diverse river system and lakes.
2. USA and Canada share borders with some of the largest freshwater lakes in North American continent and the world.
3. Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Great Bear Lake, Lake Huron, Lake Eerie and Lake Winnipeg are some of the freshwater lakes of Canada.

In fact Canada has the largest number of lakes in the whole world standing at 879,800 lakes. The Great Bear Lake is the largest freshwater lake of Canada that is solely within Canada and not shared with USA.5. China Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 2,840 This is the fifth country in the world which has largest freshwater reserve.

Poyang Lake which is situated in Jiangxi Province is the largest freshwater lake in China.6. Colombia Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 2,132 This is the sixth country in the world which has largest freshwater reserve.10 Most Dangerous Waters in the World 7. European Union Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 2,057 It hosted million kilometres of rivers and streams and more than a million lakes but unfortunately each waterbody has its own characteristics and specific environmental problems.

The current water situation in Europe, according to a European Commission brochure, is described as: 20% of all surface water in the EU is seriously threatened with pollution; Ground water supplies around 65% of all Europe’s drinking water; 60% of European cities overexploit their ground water resources; 50% of wetlands have “endangered status” due to ground water overexploitation; The area of irrigated land in southern Europe has increased by 20% since 1985.

Ocean Acidification: Causes and its effects on Marine Ecosystem 8. Indonesia Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 2,019 Although, it has one of the largest freshwater reserve but recently facing increasing freshwater supply problems, particularly on the islands of Java and Sumatera where the demand for freshwater is the highest.

Freshwater consumption is dominated by the agricultural sector, which uses 98% of Indonesia’s water resources.9. Peru Freshwater (Cubic Kilometre): 1,913 Latin America plays a key role because it has the world’s largest supply of freshwater and Peru is the ninth country in the world which has largest freshwater reserve.10.

Water is fundamental to the three dimensions of sustainable development, including social needs, economic development and environmental limits, and a cross-cutting driver. Moving from a sectoral approach towards a holistic one, which captures interconnections between foods, energy, health, trade, the environment and water is necessary. Top 10 Coffee Consuming Countries in the World

Are UK water companies private?

Every day, over 50 million household and non-household consumers in England and Wales receive good quality water, sanitation and drainage services. These services are provided by privately-owned companies in England and Wales. Since the water and sewerage industry was privatised in 1989 a regulatory framework has been in place to ensure that consumers receive high standards of service at a fair price.

the companies that are licensed to deliver water and sewerage services in England and Wales the legal framework under which they operate

Below you can find more about:

the regulatory framework that oversees, licenses and monitors them where you can find maps of water company areas the history of the water sector in England and Wales

Is water cheap in the Netherlands?

Drinking water price in the Netherlands in 2023, by company In 2023, drinking water in the Netherlands cost between 1.28 and 2.24 euros per cubic meter, depending on the exact company serving the area.

Is water expensive in the Netherlands?

Water – Water is used for almost every other thing in the house. Every household receives its water bill, which consists of two parts:

Regular water supply cost Water tax

While the tax amount is decided on many factors, water supply cost depends on your use. The average bill for water usage comes up to 150 euros per year. It can be cheaper if the readings are calculated through a water meter, While the tax amount is decided on many factors, water supply cost depends on your use.

Is tap water Free in the Netherlands

Tap water is usually free. It just isn’t served automatically as it is in the US. And it’s not just Europe. You have to ask for water in most of Asia.

Do I need to register with municipality in Netherlands

Registering with the municipality If you are going to stay in the Netherlands for more than 4 months you need to register with the municipality where you are going to live. You must do this within 5 days of arriving in the Netherlands. Make an appointment at the municipality to do this.

How do I register for municipality in the Netherlands?

Making an appointment – Contact the municipality where you would like to register well ahead of time. In most cases you will need an appointment to register. Attention: At the moment the waiting time at the municipality can be longer than usual. Please keep this in mind.