Down the drain: how billions of pounds are sucked out of England’s water system

theguardian.com:

Last year, each day saw an average of 824 separate incidents of sewage flowing into England’s rivers and beaches. Over the same period, the companies responsible paid £1.4bn to their shareholders.

The amount of sewage leaving the system was unusual, but the amount of money leaving the system is not.

In the 30 years since England’s water was privatised by Margaret Thatcher, water companies have set up a system in which billions of pounds leave the network in an average year.

The shareholder payout, for the financial year to March 2023 as calculated by the FT, was less than average. Yearly dividends from England’s big water and sewage companies are usually closer to £2bn.

The analysis below looks at company dividends from 1989 to 2022 and shows how money from water bills leaves the system.

It’s money that could have gone towards building a more resilient water system, say academics. Among them, Dieter Helm, an Oxford professor of economic policy specialising in utilities, went as far as saying in 2021 that England’s water system was “a scandal of financial engineering”.

Getting clean water into your house and sewage out, costs water companies £4bn in an average year.

Leaks need to be fixed and new pipes need to be built. England's water companies invest an average of £4.9bn each year.

The day-to-day cost of your water and investment.

So it's not that simple.

Shareholders take money out of the water companies in payouts known as dividends.

When privatised they were debt-free. Thirty years later, the big nine companies have £54bn in debt.

— to pay for growth, or to get through a tough patch.

But analysts have noticed something unusual about water companies' debt.

Average dividend payouts are £2.1bn, each year.

They say