water

[dfward]

Do you think that water rates should rise due to the recent flooding or should this extra cost come from the shareholders ..ie be absorbed by the shareholders

[leylander]

The shareholders have had enough profit out of what is an essential life sustaining property and it is time they gave something back1

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, i think the councils should have proper flood defenses in place.
The water companies should fund any extra cost they have endevoured through the flooding.
Thats like asking if the price of gas should go up just because there is a gas leak in a road...

[anotheoldgit]

It's like asking if insurance rates will go up. Of course they will along with water rates.

These companies say nothing while they are reaping it in, but ask them to pay out when the time comes and that is a different story, in rip off Britain.

It is the same when they have to start replacing Victorian infrastructure.

[lovejoy]

It's a privatised business why should the taxpayer be expected to bail it out (no pun intended) shareholders should pay in full and if it bankrupts them perhaps they will realise that maggies bullshine was just that, pure bullshine

[yellowmellow]

dwarf, what are you on about???

[andy-hughes]

Actually MrBen5, your comparison is perfectly correct - yes the Water Companies have contributed to this situation - their continual failure to provide proper repairs and infrastructure repalcement have exacerbated this nightmare - and they have the audacity to expect the local people to pay out to have repairs done?

Water is a public utility - and privatising it has simply hed to the pursuit of profit for shareholders over and above the needs of customers, and the country at large. It should be re-nationalised, and government funded tomorrow - as a proper Socialist government would have done when it came to power - but sadly, we are still waiting for one of those ...

[jedimistress]

Tell me about it, my house has been flooding since January, due to negligence by Welsh Water and their sewerage! I hope to sue for negligence very shortly so there could be a happy ending.

Yes the shareholders should pay, they invested to make money off our backs so why should we have to bail them out?

[LeMarchand]

The shareholders should pay. The privatisation of national resources wasn't a good idea, was done without asking the public, and did nothing but make a bunch of rich folk even richer. About time they put something back into the pot.

[buildersmate]

The majority of the flooding in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire is nothing to do with the water companies. Just because they are responsible (or are supposed to be responsible) for surface drainage from houses and highways doesn't make them responsible for the safe passage of ALL excess water from the place it falls back to the sea. Over 95% of the water that fell landed in non-urban areas, trickled into streams, then rivers, then swamped the Avon, Thames and other major rivers. Sure, some localised flash flooding in towns came from overwhelmed storm drains and that caused local problems and a small number of cases of flooding which quickly receded.
The main 'extra costs' incurred by the water companies are for overtime for the valiant water workers who helped out, and for the bowser / bottled water fiasco. That cost should come out of company profits (from shareholders). But I suspect your question also relates to costs of wider infrastructure repair caused by mass flooding of river plains.
It's an Act of God made worse by man building on the flood plains, leaving the water fewer places to safely overspill into.

[rabbitygirl]

I'm glad buildersmate mentioned the water workers at the 'water face'. What goes unmentioned is that all these extra bods are drafted in under secondment or by mass appeal to their staff. My friend is left at base, tired and tearful, few workmen to call on, trying to service unaffected areas. Some of these problems need immediate response too.

She has leave arranged for this week (which she now really needs) and the management that remains have sucked in air thru their teeth and said they may have no one to cover in her absence.