| Down the Plughole: why is our water so expensive? |
|
|
|
Page 2 of 8 Even South West Water’s chief executive Mr Loughlin admits that, while the long terms benefits of Clean Sweep have been huge, it was an ‘expensive programme’. Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat MPs have long been fighting the corner of Cornwall’s residents who appear to be footing the bill for Cornwall’s clean beaches. They are concerned that while South West Water customers are faced with the largest bills in the country, the company creamed a £97 million profit in the first six months of the 2007/2008 financial year.  St Agnes Beach has benefited from South West Water's clean water policies. Photo by Oliver Rudkin. West Cornwall MP Andrew George is vice chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Water Industry Group. He said: “The company operates in a uniquely protected environment. It can more or less predict its own profit in advance; a risk-free money extortion system which has its own regulator – OFWAT – to give it that added aura of acceptability. “It really is time that the Government looked again at the system of regulation – one which puts our water rate payers at a massive disadvantage compared with the rest of the country.” |
||||||||||