Can These Companies Survive?

England’s water companies are under fire – there’s public anger over sewage spills and leaks, and now regulators and government ministers are worried some of them are drowning in too much debt. So what’s gone wrong, and who will pay the price of fixing the industry?

On the face of it, running a water company seems like a licence to print money – there’s guaranteed revenue, and no competition – but there’s a lot of infrastructure to build and maintain, and strict targets that are getting even tougher and more expensive to hit as environmental concerns grow.

Many of England’s water firms have taken on very high levels of debt, but have they used it to invest, or pay off their shareholders? And does the regulator, Ofwat, have questions to answer for strangling spending on improvements in a bid to keep customer prices low?

Evan Davis is joined by:

Nicola Shaw, CEO, Yorkshire Water; Sir Ian Byatt, Ofwat Director General from 1989 to 2000; Verity Mitchell, UK analyst at Global Water Intelligence.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Producer: Simon Tulett Editor: China Collins Sound: Graham Puddifoot and Mike Woolley Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown

Produced in partnership with The Open University.