Ignore the Government spin. The recommendations of the Cunliffe Review are simply putting lipstick on a pig and fall pitifully short of the radical reform that’s needed to end the sewage scandal. So, Prime Minister, don’t take us for fools. If you let the water companies keep raking in profits at our expense, you not only risk losing public trust but the confidence of your own MPs.
For 35 years, our water system has put private profit first, and the consequences for public health and the environment are evident for all to see. More than £74 billion extracted for shareholders, a debt mountain of £69 billion, and sewage dumps beyond measure. This is a legacy of environmental and economic carnage that successive governments, and our regulators, should be truly ashamed of. And yet Sir Jon Cunliffe and Steve Reed appear to expect us to believe that this system can somehow be patched up with a few cosmetic tweaks? It cannot.
