Letting off steam! (Anglian Water)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Anglian Water
Date:	12/02/08 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The water comes out of the clouds

Disadvantages: The prices keep going up

Isn't it interesting how our individual utility companies have dealt with the extremely questionable manmade global warming threat...We are told that through our excessive energy use the world is warming up and resources are running out fast, the oil price at $100 a barrel seemingly baring that one out. But there is no shortage of natural gas out there and if the world is getting warmer then why have the gas and heating bills risen 60% in real terms here in the last five years? The answer, of course, is the big six energy companies have got together and rigged the markets to make gas scarcer to British consumers by storing it on the continent and so in short supply here. With plans to introduce domestic markets here and charge consumers by their distance away from the depots and gas tanks then the prices will keep rising.

Water companies, on the other hand, have no real control over their resource. But they, too, can jump on the MMGW bandwagon when it suits. If we have a rare summer where it doesn't rain much they really pump up the drought hype, but if it's extremely wet, like it has been for the last 18 months, they say nothing, the Armageddon put on hold. So with normal rainfall in the U.K over the last ten years after last years wet summer leveled things up and so the reservoirs and water tables full to bursting then how do they rig their markets to bring in more money to please the all-important shareholders divvies? Thames Waters tactics were the same as the gas companies: make water scarce. They failed to build any new reservoirs for the ever expanding London metropolis and started to sell off the other reservoirs as prime real-estate. They then decided not to fix the leaks on mass and then turned around and said, hey, we are low on water, it's a drought guys!! We are going to have to whack up the prices.

The water companies know that if they can fool us into thinking global warming is real and rapid then they, too, can introduce internal markets for a commodity that appears to be scarce and so in demand. To make water an actual tradable commodity they will need to charge us per litre, and that will be done by getting as many people as possible onto meters, their next big push. In this way they, too, can also drive up their profits like the gas guys did that 60%. The water companies are spinning that if customers opt to have meters installed then they will save money. Have you guys ever heard of a company that tells its customers to do something that will help the company lose money? No, nor have I. Do not change to meters!

My local company, Angilan Water, pushed up the prices by demanding extra funds for repairing those leaking pipes. But, rather coincidentally, their profits matched the money they failed to spend on fixing those leaking pipes. And the reason they don't fix their leaks is because there's still billions of tons of water still falling out of the sky every bloody day so no shortage. But because the shareholders demand a divvy the companies have to work out strategies on how to overcharge for a plentiful resource. Lets be honest, they could put anything on that bill and we wouldn't question it and still pay it. The only good thing about the water bill is pretty much anyone can default on it as by law we must all have running water for health reasons. They can't cut you off. British Gas, trying to repair its corporate image, also failed to cut anyone off last year, however in debt they got.

Like Thames Water, Anglian are pushing meters on their customers, whether they need them or not. We have had above average rainfall over the last 18 months here and we don't see the need for meters to protect supply. And these meters won't be cheap, some companies charging up to £150 to have them installed. Measuring usage would push up prices radically for an average family and some households would have to pay up to £200 a year extra on meters for the same water usage they used to enjoy of a commodity that is still in plentiful supply right now. There is no drought in the East of England and it hasn't stopped raining for 10 months. Try telling the people of Gloucester and Sheffield that there's no water about.

Another mechanism they hope to introduce is to force people onto direct-debits. If you don't go on to them they want to charge you extra for your bill. That's not fair in anyone's books. I'm sure it saves on their administration costs but DD are so hard to cancel, companies able to keep pulling out money from your account when you have told them to cancel the service. Those extra bills can push your account into the red and then the bank charges come. Paying a cheque to your utility companies at least allows you to pull back some of the money they demand when you are up on your bill. I was plus £250 on my gas last year and they were still taking out £50 a month. If we are all locked into DD then they can pretty much take out cash when they want to boost their share prices

The toothless water regulator is the main culprit here, only the occasional token fine for excessive leakage handed out over the last ten years in the industry. These fines are just passed on to customers bills anyway as their profits continue to go up and up.
My bill with Anglia Water goes up every year and the rain keeps falling. The price doesn't seem to fall in a wet summer, like any other consumable usage out there. With gas and electricity cost shooting and utility bills now 15% of our income and much higher for pensioners I think it's about time the government had a reality cheque of raising taxation this way and put that two pence back on income tax so people working pay the taxes. Without that two pence its people like my old mum in her bungalow on her pension that has to find that lost revenue through deliberately inflated utility bills the government take a nice slice from.

The irony of the theory of man-made global warming to the water companies is it will indeed bring more flooding from what we are told is less water falling out of our skies in the future. The flooding we have seen in the UK is not so much to do with more rain but bunged up drains and more concrete on the ground. Couple that suicidal attitude with this ridiculous building on flood plains policy and you get billions of tons of natural run-off water with nowhere to go. The water companies used to be responsible for that drainage but have off-loaded onto local councils, who quickly decided it was too much extra cost and so sold all its drainage lorries, the run-off drains now full of mud and weed. The councils attitude to drainage is an odd one, spending lots of money on recycling trucks to save resources to cut future global warming crisis like flooded cities and town centers but not un-bunging the drains to let that water run away?. There, is of course, no money to be made from pumping out drains and cleaning water escape systems but there is money to be made for councils in selling brown and green-belt, flood-plain lands to developers, and the soon to be introduced domestic bin taxes from those new shiny trucks that cant unbung drains. Man-made global warming is just another mechanism to fleece more taxes from us and for the local and national government to avoid responsibilities...

-LINKS-

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/
http://www.uswitch.com/Water/Ofwat.html
http://www.anglianwater.co.uk

Summary: Fleeced again!