From BBC Science & Environment, this morning:
Water companies have been ordered to return £158m to customers via lower bills next year after missing key targets on issues like pollution. The industry regulator Ofwat announced the rebate following its annual review of water and wastewater companies’ performance in England and Wales.
Google AI searches find no examples of rebates from Scottish Water but does suggest discounts for those businesses on lower incomes.
With regard, to fines, the AI Overview does seem to have some cheer for Unionists, with:
Scottish Water has been fined multiple times for environmental and health and safety violations, including…
but then it turns out that these ‘multiple times’ consist of only £140 000 for a worker falling in 2020, only £19 000 for releasing untreated sewage in the Clyde in2016 and £6 700 for releasing chemicals into the River Eden in 2018. There is a still one unsettled case on Lewis, from 2008.
Restrict the Google AI search to the last year and all it can find is the 2016 Clyde report again before, not that intelligently, offering a report from Devon.
So no fines or rebates for poor performance at all in the last year means that Scottish Water is performing infinitely better than those companies in England & Wales?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
No surprise then that this good news for SW doesn’t gain splash coverage from the Beeb.
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Having heard countless moans from the MSM about the failings of ”The Water Companies ” , they NEVER compare the performance of these parasites to Scottish Water .
I wonder why ?
How many consumers in England and Wales , at the mercy of these water monopolies , are aware that in Scotland Public water is NOT Privatised ? If they did , would they accept so stoically the present system which clearly fails them ?
The MSM have much to answer for !
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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!
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