The public has paid almost £200bn to the shareholders who own key British industries since they were privatised, research reveals. The transfer of tens of billions of pounds to the owners of the privatised water, rail, bus, energy and mail services comes as families face soaring bills, polluted rivers and seas, and expensive and unreliable

The privatised water industry is rubbing its hands with glee, because reservoirs appear as assets on their books, and therefore increase the value of the companies. It might seem strange that, on an island renowned for its drizzle, we should find ourselves hit once again by water shortages, but this should not really come as

Is the UK’s infrastructure ready for climate change, with periods of dry weather becoming more common as a result of the climate crisis? No new reservoir has been built in the UK since 1992, shortly after water companies were privatised. While there are some plans to build new reservoirs these are not expected to be

Only 1% of water companies’ actions to improve environmental performance, such as improving sewer overflows, have been inspected by the Environment Agency, the authors of the NAO report said. They also found there was no regulator responsible for proactively inspecting wastewater assets to prevent further environmental harm.

The average bill will go up 36% but how much extra billpayers will be charged depends on what part of England or Wales you live in, and which water company supplies you. The sums are below what the firms had requested but not far off. In 2023 there were over 582,000 discharges of untreated sewage into UK rivers, totalling

Customer bills make up at least 96% of water company revenue, according to Guardian analysis of company accounts for 2023. The analysis of financial data for all 14 English water companies found the industry has paid close to 20p for every pound of revenue on servicing debt on average over the past five years…

UK Ministers have been making plans to remove the EU’s water framework directive from legally binding targets, which legislates to clean up dirty rivers and seas from agricultural, chemical and sewage pollution…

Customer bills make up at least 96% of water company revenue, according to Guardian analysis of company accounts for 2023…