OFWAT, the water companies and corporate welfare

Corporate welfare for the water industry…

This from the FT reporting on a National Audit Office report into excess profits in the water industry. Overly generous regulations have boosted profits in the water industry by £800m over the past five years.

The article is at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/139dd70a-7714-11e5-a95a-27d368e1ddf7.html#axzz3r8ErN17R/

“Those opposed to cuts in personal benefits often complain there is too little focus on “corporate welfare”. By this they mean situations where public authorities hand out goodies to companies that are quite able to fund their activities by themselves. There are few better examples of the practice than developments at Britain’s regulated water companies.

The National Audit Office, the UK public accounts watchdog, recently concluded that water businesses had been allowed to retain excess profits of at least £800m over the past five years rather than pass the windfall savings on to customers. This boost — amounting to 8 per cent of profits — was not generated through additional efficiencies, but was mainly the product of an overgenerous regulatory regime.”

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.