I intervened in this debate to say: Does the Minister understand the depth of disappointment that a lot of environmental campaigners have felt because the remit did not include taking water out of private hands? There is a general feeling of absolute anger that public ownership was not considered. Does the Minister accept that? I include Feargal Sharkey and myself among those environmental campaigners who are horribly disappointed. Continue reading “Independent Water Commission”
Water companies currently have 12,000 criminal convictions against them. Can the Minister tell me at what number he will consider these people criminals and not fit to have an operating licence to deliver our water? Continue reading “Water Companies: Private Ownership”
Speaking to the Speaker about why I campaign on topics including salmon farming and water company pollution in the latest episode of ‘Lord Speaker’s Corner’ Continue reading “Lord Speaker’s Corner”
90% of England’s water and sewerage services are owned by foreign investors Continue reading “Thames Water: Bids”
It is very hard to convey the anger felt by not just hundreds of thousands but millions of people at the mess the water companies have made over the past 30 years. I say “mess”, because that is what the public have had had to deal with – this is about sewage-filled seawater, dirty beaches, polluted rivers, chalk stream ecosystems destroyed and sometimes even E. coli in our water supply – while water companies have been amazingly efficient at siphoning off money for shareholders and employees Continue reading “Water Companies: Fines”
If we were talking about benefit claimants who had behaved in the way that water companies have, we would not just slap them on the wrist in the way that we have the water companies; we would crack down on them, claw back the money and take them to court. The water companies have got off so lightly in this whole process. That really does not seem fair to bill payers or to taxpayers. The water companies have been saying that they invest all the bill payers’ money in infrastructure, but they then take out loans and pay themselves dividends. With this legislation—even with the amendments—the Government are missing the opportunity to crack down on predatory capitalism. Continue reading “Water (Special Measures) Bill Report Stage”
This last weekend I joined tens of thousands of people marching for clean water in London Continue reading “Water Bill Committee Stage Day 3”
If I look at this from a completely different perspective, possibly from the perspective of the previous Government, it was a remarkable success story over 14 years because we had huge growth in sewage and pollution and it had a multiplier impact on gross national product. Growth is not an indicator of happiness or of the economy being run for the benefit of many. It is a nonsense soundbite for the economically illiterate and needs to be deleted from this legislation Continue reading “Water Bill Committee Stage Day 2”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 