stewartb
It’s useful to have comparisons of the performance of key public services in different parts of the Union – and for a number of reasons.
I’ve become especially interested in getting much better informed about what can be achieved by electing the British Labour Party to govern with devolved powers. Fortunately, we have Wales with its longstanding British Labour Party government in Cardiff to use as a benchmark. After all, we need to know what we might expect from a British Labour Party government in Edinburgh after 2026!
In this context, how with the British Labour Party in power in Cardiff does the relevant water company perform? How well have Welsh consumers fared under a British Labour Party government?
The situation with Welsh Water is probably unique in the. UK in corporate terms. In 2001, Welsh Water became a not-for-profit organisation with no shareholders. Welsh Water is owned by Glas Cymru, a single purpose company This differentiates it from all the water companies operating in England which are run for the financial benefit of the private entities that own them and who extract dividends from company earnings to pay investors. So far so good?
The company’s website lists six different regulators, including Ofwat. On the Welsh Government’s role, it explains: ‘The Welsh Government sets the legislative and regulatory framework within which we operate by making regulations and issuing statutory guidance. It also publishes statutory guidance setting out the strategic priorities that it expects Ofwat to pursue in its regulation of the water industry in Wales.’
So in this round of Ofwat assessments and penalties on water companies in England and Wales, how has Welsh Water been rated? The BBC News website’s Wales page has this headline: ‘Underperforming Welsh Water ordered to pay £24m’.
Here BBC Wales reports: ‘It is one of only three water companies in Wales and England to be placed in the regulator’s lowest “lagging” category.’ (My emphasis).
It also notes that: ‘In 2023, Welsh Water released sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea around Wales for more than 916,000 hours – about 20% of all hours of discharges across Wales and England.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjr9qlr1ryo
On 14 March 2024, the Ofwat website had this: ‘Following an investigation by Ofwat, which found Welsh Water misled customers and regulators on its performance on leakage and per capita consumption (PCC) data, the company will have to pay £40m to benefit its customers.
‘As a result of Ofwat’s data assurance rules, the company identified issues with its reporting and notified Ofwat. Ofwat’s subsequent investigation found evidence that a significant failure of governance and management oversight led to the water company misreporting its leakage and PCC performance figures over a period of five years, significantly underplaying its poor performance.‘
(Imagine BBC Scotland, STV, the Daily. Record and the British Labour Party’s leadership in Scotland had this to pin on Scottish Water!)
In short, based on this track record, is having the British Labour Party as a devolved government with statutory and legislative powers regarding the provision of water services the means to achieve better services? Better at least than those provided in England by water companies operating for over a decade under a Tory-devised regulatory regime? It really doesn’t seem so!
Once again, government by the British Labour Party – based on the evidence from Wales – is NOT the solution to what Scotland needs and wants!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I THINK THE LABOUR ‘BOYS’ARE STITCHING UP WELSH INDY HOPES
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Tut, tut! How very dare you insinuate that our dear “English Patriotic Party” (Starmerer), is somehow less than competent in dealing with wur wee colonial water board in Wales. Or that dear Kapitalist-Comrade Starwars would be unable to match this sterling performance up there in far away Jockland? Is he not his fathers son able to both jump high, and limbo dance to order?
You may (if good) stay up and watch the wee dot as the BEEB shuts down for the night, with the sun setting on our dearly beloved outpost of Chagos, and “Merrilee We Roll Along” playing as Cap’n Starmer struts his stuff—Oh, how we like the cut of his jib in his shiny new Savoy suit in the Emirates Stadium, as he makes a (free) spectacle of himself.
In the House of Commons library……Lard Baron Ffoulksakia to the new intake of nodding donkeys:—Water Board excuse No1…..
“Merde in the river and shite in the sea.
Wiz they feckin’ Tories, cause it wiznae NEVER me”!
gavinochiltree
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In fairness to Welsh Water, the BBC Wales observation ” ‘In 2023, Welsh Water released sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea around Wales for more than 916,000 hours – about 20% of all hours of discharges across Wales and England.’ ” is deliberately misleading – Welsh rivers do NOT suffer anything like the pollution levels endured in England.
As to the Ofwat fine, this again appears suspiciously like ‘blame-sharing’, particularly since it is founded on WW ” identified issues with its reporting and notified Ofwat ” – Leakage and PCC are inter-related and notoriously difficult to quantify other than over long timescales and extensive metering.
Comparatively speaking WW and SW are allowed to get on with their job with minimal political interference and strong independent regulation – For all that England’s water companies are profit-making enterprises, it is at the regulatory level where it all went wrong in England, particularly under the “cut the red tape” culture of the Tories – It is as yet unclear what Labour intend to do about this water fiasco in England, but given their approach to the NHS, I suggest the farce will continue.
Were Labour to take control of Holyrood in 2026, one would hope they would have the sense not to interfere with SW et al, but it is in their ‘loyalty’ to Westminster where the greatest danger lies….
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