WATER bills will go up so firms can invest more to tackle the sewage scandal, families were warned today.
Grovelling bosses said there will be “modest upward pressure” on costs for the next century while a £10billion upgrade of the Victorian network takes place.
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Downing Street this morning told water companies to “put consumers before profits” as the cost of living crisis bites.
And campaigners are demanding refunds from the firms who stand accused of “incompetence and greed”.
Water UK has apologised for failing to stop Britain’s rivers and seas being polluted with dirty waste.
The trade body wants to cut overflows by up to 140,000 each year by 2030, compared to the level in 2020, and it plans to publish a financial plan this summer.
But today its chair Ruth Kelly admitted bill-payers will have to foot some of the costs.
She told BBC Breakfast: “Over time, the way the system works is that there will be modest upward pressure on customer bills over the full lifetime of the asset, so over 50 years or perhaps even longer, maybe up to 100 years, customers do contribute.
“This is an investment programme that will go on for years. We literally want to do this as fast as is physically possible.”
Musician and clean river campaigner Feargal Sharkey said the water companies for making customers pay “a second time”, saying their apology was “nothing to celebrate whatsoever”.
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He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “What I’m actually hearing is no apology for the fact we’ve paid them for a service we haven’t got.
“They are now suggesting that we should pay them a second time for a service we haven’t had.
“We should have an apology for the suggestion they are going to put bills up by £10 billion for their incompetence and their greed.
“This is nothing to celebrate whatsoever. What they should be saying is, ‘we messed this up, we’re terribly sorry, we’re going to compensate you all, £10billion, it is the least we could do for our customers, give you a refund’.
