An environmental group is to take legal action against Ofwat, the water regulator, accusing it of unlawfully making customers pay for decades of neglect by the water industry.
River campaigners are set to sue Ofwat over water bill rises. An environmental group is to take legal action against Ofwat, the water regulator, accusing it of unlawfully making customers pay for decades of neglect by the water industry.
River Action will file the legal claim this month and argues customers could be forced to pay twice under Ofwat changes. “We believe Ofwat has acted unlawfully by approving … funds without ensuring they are spent on genuine improvements to essential infrastructure,” said Emma Dearnaley, the head of legal at River Action. “Instead, this … funding is being allowed to be used to cover up years of failure.
“Ofwat has signed off on a broken system where customers are being charged again for services they have already funded. The cost of fixing the UK’s crumbling water infrastructure should fall on the companies and their investors, not on the British public.”
READ MORE Met Office issues stark Polar Vortex warning which could hit UK ‘within fortnight’
Ricardo Gama, of Leigh Day, which is representing the campaign group, said: “Ofwat has said … it won’t let price rises be spent on fixing historic issues which are leading water companies to breach their permits. They’ve said in black-and-white terms that customers won’t be expected to pay twice.
“But in documents seen by River Action it looks like Ofwat hasn’t done its homework in checking whether the money it’s letting United Utilities take from customers will actually be used for that purpose.”
An Ofwat spokesperson said: “We reject River Action’s claims. The PR24 process methodically scrutinised business plans to ensure that customers were getting fair value and investment was justified.
“We agree that customers should not pay twice for companies to regain compliance with environmental permits, and have included appropriate safeguards in our PR24 determinations to ensure this, which we will monitor closely, taking action if required. We will respond to their letter in due course.”