The scandalous costs of Thames Water's failings being forced onto us.

With our bills increasing to service debts, crumbling infrastructure and growing sewage dumping, the failure of the Tories water company privatisation policy is now laid bare.

In 1989 the Tory Government privatised the water companies in England and Wales including Thames Water as part of their flagship privatisation policy that would, it was claimed, give us greater choice, cuts bills and improve services. But exactly the opposite has happened and we, their customers, are now having to pay for the failure of this policy while services continue to decline.

Last year, in 2024, Thames Water discharged raw sewage for 27,400 hours into the West Oxfordshire rivers. That is the equivalent of 3 separate sewage outlets being discharged non stop into our rivers continually throughout the year. It is also a 25% increase on the previous year, and in line with the ever growing year on year trend. Consequently, our rivers are in a state of ecological crisis.

At the same time there are the perennial and growing problems across our area; sewage backing up into peoples’ toilets, spilling into their gardens, and into roads, public spaces and fields; low water pressure so some cannot run more than one tap at a time. And all because the sewerage and water network is overwhelmed following decades of underinvestment and ever increasing demand. Thames Water needs an estimated £23bn to bring its crumbling infrastructure up to standard.

And yet, since the company was privatised, it has reported great profits, paid their shareholders, many of whom are overseas, over £8 billion in dividends, and been rewarding their CEOs and directors with enormous salaries and bonuses. All this though has been achieved at a considerable cost. Thames Waters debts have gone from £0 to £19,000,000,000 in that time, debts on which growing interest has to be constantly paid.

This not only means Thames Water is unable to make the necessary investment to fix our sewage and water issues, but that it is on the brink of bankruptcy. To keep going for another year it has been allowed to take on a further £3bn loan with an eye-watering 9.75% interest rate and heavy service charges.

What does this mean for us, their customers? Well, currently 33p in each £1 in your bill is being used to pay this debt interest, which, it is estimated, will go up to 46p in every £1, when this additional loan is added in. In short nearly half of what you pay will go to bankers, hedge funds and investment companies instead of going towards upgrading infrastructure and services. To counter this Thames Water will be substantially increasing our bills.

Just before Christmas OFWAT, the Water company regulator, agreed to the company increasing our water bills by 35% and now is considering a request to increase these by 53%. And yet we have no choice in supplier and must accept whatever is agreed.

Our local Lib Dem MP's and especially Charlie Maynard, our Witney MP, together with local Liberal Democrats Councillors and the action group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) have been standing up for you, as Thames Water Customers, and demanding that the Government place Thames Water into a Special Administration Regime and move it into a non-profit corporation or a community benefit company. You can support this too by registering here. www.oxonld.uk/pricehike

England and Wales are the only countries in the world with a fully privatised water supply. Even Scotland and Northern Ireland remain in public hands. But privatisation has been a failure and though this current Government is dragging its feet, it will need act at some point.

After all why should you be made to pay for the failings of Thames Water, and pay bankers, hedge funds and investment companies, who are often foreign, huge interest payments, when that money that should be going to fix the infrastructure, improve services, reduce pollution and lower costs. It is time surely, we, their customers, came first.