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Torys vote to keep SH*T in the water.

Just renationalise them. Paying dividends sucks the investment out

Yes, maybe in an ideal world. However, much like British Rail and other similar privatised national assets, it would just be starved of Government investment unless they were allowed to borrow and go into debt on the open financial markets. These debts would be effectively be underwritten by the Government anyway. The Tories want an at arms length open market approach so there is no direct responsibility for the problems / mess and rising bill costs: that's the open markets, like the current gas and electricity price issues. Don't blame us Tories.
 
Just renationalise them. Paying dividends sucks the investment out

Privatising a natural monopoly makes no sense to me. As someone posted upthread if I get fed up with Thames Water being expensive and inept it's not like I can switch to a competitor.

With no competition their only incentive to do anything is state regulation. At that point they might as well be state owned.

Though of course there's every chance that a state run water company would be rubbish too...
 
Yes, maybe in an ideal world. However, much like British Rail and other similar privatised national assets, it would just be starved of Government investment unless they were allowed to borrow and go into debt on the open financial markets. These debts would be effectively be underwritten by the Government anyway. The Tories want an at arms length open market approach so there is no direct responsibility for the problems / mess and rising bill costs: that's the open markets, like the current gas and electricity price issues. Don't blame us Tories.

That's as maybe but we've lost £60 bn paid out in dividends. None of that should have been paid out with ongoing investment requirements. The trouble is the regulator is both spineless and toothless
 
Good Evening All,

I was really p****d off watching the news last night wrt the voting on the sewage issue. As somebody who is not connected to mains sewage and spent over £5k last year to install a PSTP c/w partial soaraway (the latter not strictly necessary) my blood was kind of boiling that water companies are allowed to get away with dumping stuff.

Our old septic tank was connected to at least one gutter downpipe but the new PSTP is only connected to black/ grey water.

In theory all existing septic tanks should become known to the authorities when a property is sold, although I suspect getting them replaced will be more problematic....

We, as a country, do need to do something to segregate rain water and grey/ black water but it is going to be a massive and expensive task.

Regards

Richard
 
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Good Evening All,

I was really p****d off watching the news last night wrt the voting on the sewage issue. As somebody who is not connected to mains sewage and spent over £5k last year to install a PSTP c/w partial soaraway (the latter not strictly necessary) my blood was kind of boiling that water companies are allowed to get away with dumping stuff.

Our old septic tank was connected to at least one gutter downpipe but the new PSTP is only connected to black/ grey water.

In theory all existing septic tanks should become known to the authorities when a property is sold, although I suspect getting them replaced will be more problematic....

We, as a country, do need to do something to segregate rain water and grey/ black water but it is going to be a massive and expensive task.

Regards

Richard
I too have a septic tank. About ten years ago when we had an extension built. (Garage, utility room and man cave over garage.) We took the opportunity to install a rainwater tank that takes the rainfall off most of the roofs and stores it. We use this to water the veg patch which is also where the septic tanl soakaway heads. So we use as much of our waste as greenly as possible. My brother also has a septic tank. Years ago when he visited he harvested some bull rushes from the local field drain. These have been planted and multiplied in his pond which again takes the soakaway water and acts as a natural filter system.

No septic tank / soakaway is truly green but you can do the best you can. The old saying goes that a spetic tank works until someone notices it doesn't. Southern water though is a totally different case where top down in the organisation they deliberately under invested to keep profits and falsified records to hide it. A fine is not enough here that wilful pollution deserves a jail sentence.
 
I too have a septic tank. About ten years ago when we had an extension built. (Garage, utility room and man cave over garage.) We took the opportunity to install a rainwater tank that takes the rainfall off most of the roofs and stores it. We use this to water the veg patch which is also where the septic tanl soakaway heads. So we use as much of our waste as greenly as possible. My brother also has a septic tank. Years ago when he visited he harvested some bull rushes from the local field drain. These have been planted and multiplied in his pond which again takes the soakaway water and acts as a natural filter system.

No septic tank / soakaway is truly green but you can do the best you can. The old saying goes that a spetic tank works until someone notices it doesn't. Southern water though is a totally different case where top down in the organisation they deliberately under invested to keep profits and falsified records to hide it. A fine is not enough here that wilful pollution deserves a jail sentence.

I agree re prison sentence for the directors of these large corporates and not three months in an open prison either. Send them for a longer sentence to a ‘hard’ jail and let’s see if that is enough of a deterrent to attempt to try and stop such practices both by their company and others. Rant over.
 
i was curious about the owners of some of these companies. Starting with one of the repeat offenders, Southern Water, their website is a bit cagey but you get this:
https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/default/pdfs/3968_Ownership_structure.pdf
Pretty clear, no? Nice mix of holding companies in Jersey and elsewhere.
Now, who owns Greensands Holdings? Wikipedia:"Currently the largest shareholders are JP Morgan Asset Management (40%), UBS Asset Management (22%), Hermes Infrastructure Funds (21%) and Whitehelm Capital (8%).[3]" but this is 2018 information so a bit old. Macquarie Asset Management of Australia announced this summer they were acquiring a majority of the company. At least they are in the infrastructure business.
 
In theory all existing septic tanks should become known to the authorities when a property is sold, although I suspect getting them replaced will be more problematic....

I too have a septic tank and had a 'mini treatment plant' (ie aerated unit) added a few years back. It took a lot of work via SEPA and local council planning to get it defined and it's outflow sorted, etc before they'd grant planning permission for the relevant property. So I wonder if here in Scotland the registration process is better. Certainly they seem to be defined on property sale particulars.

CHE
 
I too have a septic tank and had a 'mini treatment plant' (ie aerated unit) added a few years back. It took a lot of work via SEPA and local council planning to get it defined and it's outflow sorted, etc before they'd grant planning permission for the relevant property. So I wonder if here in Scotland the registration process is better. Certainly they seem to be defined on property sale particulars.

CHE

In theory, here in Scotland, SEPA should be capturing the existence of septic tanks now under the 'The Water Environment (Controlled Activities)(Scotland) Regulations 2011' - https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/water/septic-tanks-and-private-sewage-treatment-systems/

That is a start but how enthusiastically SEPA are checking compliance is another matter (I guess the necessary funding would be a part of that) - https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/480219/septic_tank_leaflet_uk_a4_v2_090913.pdf.

Note SEPA are setting a lower standard than England wrt upgrading septic tanks........... - https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/34800/introduction-to-the-controlled-activities-regulations.pdf

Regards

Richard
 
i was curious about the owners of some of these companies. Starting with one of the repeat offenders, Southern Water, their website is a bit cagey but you get this:
https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/default/pdfs/3968_Ownership_structure.pdf
Pretty clear, no? Nice mix of holding companies in Jersey and elsewhere.
Now, who owns Greensands Holdings? Wikipedia:"Currently the largest shareholders are JP Morgan Asset Management (40%), UBS Asset Management (22%), Hermes Infrastructure Funds (21%) and Whitehelm Capital (8%).[3]" but this is 2018 information so a bit old. Macquarie Asset Management of Australia announced this summer they were acquiring a majority of the company. At least they are in the infrastructure business.

I guess it makes a change from being owned by European governments like the train operating companies.
 


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