Two doomed-to-be-ignored points on sewage spills: - Our sewers combine rainfall and sewage. It's been incredibly rainy. Therefore more overflows. - This is the first year we've got 100% monitoring, so impossible to make historical comparisons (not that that's stopping anyone).
@rcolvile You seem to be suggesting this is broadly acceptable and we should just accept it..even if exact comparisons are ‘impossible’ the broad direction of travel suggests it’s getting worse..and people would like improvements.
@Vindictus13 No, I’m saying this is a problem but we are actually getting a handle on it, and it’s emphatically not a new thing.
@rcolvile Thks. I agree it’s not a new thing by the nature of it getting wetter it’s getting worse. Equally when water companies had opportunities in the past to ‘deal’ with it they seemed to prefer larger dividends over action. Hence now the perception they took more out than they put in.
@Vindictus13 No. Water companies make the amount of investment the regulator tells/allows them to. Their profits go up if they invest more!
@rcolvile 1/ While you may be factually correct, as I said, the public perception isn’t there thus more effort explaining may help. 2/It seems another example of a weak regulator. Putting bills up potentially 40% against past dividends and perceived lack of investment goes down badly
@Vindictus13 @rcolvile It’s not a problem of a weak regulator. It’s a simple mathematical function of the rules. The rules say that when you invest £x you are allowed to earn a return over the life of that investment. The return is regulated. But by its nature, it appears as ‘profit’ and is returned as
@Vindictus13 @rcolvile Interest and dividends. People hate the idea of those two words, but they are the only way to attract investment. Under the rules, you can earn these returns on all allowed investment - but by definition, the only way to earn them is through bills. So if you invest more, you earn
@hwilliamssomers @Vindictus13 @rcolvile Regulator allows increased profits, not forces.