Drip, Drip, Drip

England and Wales's privatised Water Companies essentially have monopolies. The 'regulator', Ofwat, has approved their rising average water bills by 36% over 5 years. This is after much wailing from the Water Companies, about the costs of improving their infrastructure, fixing leaks and having to stop discharging raw sewage into rivers (https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/dec/19/water-bills-for-households-in-england-and-wales-to-rise). Until now, most privatised Water Companies have prioritised spending their income on shareholder dividends and executive bonuses. Some have even taken on massive loans for this purpose and/or reduced operating costs by illegally discharging raw sewage into rivers and lakes. Some of these ill-gotten gains ought to have been spent on improvements to infrastructure and updating to deal with long-anticipated climate change. There's no certainty they will behave better now.