Response to Jeremy Corbyn comments

Responding to Jeremy Corbyn MP’s comments today, Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of Water UK, said:

“As an industry we’ve invested £150bn since privatisation, which has helped to cut leakage by a third and improve services. Water companies have just announced plans to invest an extra £10 billion a year to improve the water network, cut bills in real terms, and reduce leakage even further - all based on the views of over 5 million customers. In making the investment needed by the industry to tackle the big challenges posed by climate change and an increasing population, it’s not clear that government-owned water companies would win the fight for taxpayers’ money every year in competition with health and education.”

Notes:

On Monday 3rd September 2018, the water industry in England set out an ambitious new vision for the 2020s with the publication of A Manifesto for Water. It revealed plans for a major investment programme in services, a 16% cut in leakage, an over 4% real-term reduction in bills, and a 90% increase in help for people who struggle to pay. It also includes a new programme for helping the environment which will see 8000 km of rivers cleaned and improved.

The Manifesto is available online.

Water UK Communications
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