Water company shareholders paid “billions of pounds”

SHAREHOLDERS in privatised water companies have been paid more than £6.5 billion in the past five years, according to new research.

Dividends last year in the nine companies in England totalled £1.4 billion, a study by the GMB union and Corporate Watch found.

The average dividend and interest accrued for shareholders by each company last year was £158 million, said the GMB.

The report is part of the union’s campaign to bring England’s privatised water industry back into public ownership.

The union recently revealed that 2.4 billion litres of water is wasted through leaks every single day in England, while chief executives were paid £58 million in salary, bonuses, pensions and other benefits over the past five years.

GMB general secretary Tim Roache said: “Forking out billions to shareholders, while bills rocket and trillions of litres of water are wasted shows just how broken the system is.

“It’s absurd that something we all depend on is in private hands delivering eye watering payouts instead of being run for the public good.”

Chi Onwurah, shadow business minister, said: “Despite chronic under investment in our water system, water companies continue to pay out exorbitant shareholder dividends.

“Over the last eight years, water companies have received more from the Government in tax credits than they’ve actually paid in tax.

“Some have even paid more in dividends than they have made in profit, running up debts that are passed on to bill payers.

“Labour will fix this broken system by bringing the water companies into public ownership.”