• frazorth
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    23 days ago

    The water company, which has said it could run out of cash by next June, had asked the regulator for permission to charge customers £156.6m through bills to plug the pension shortfall.

    I think the phrase is “fuck you”.

    • MexOPM
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      23 days ago

      Fuck you very much :)

      • frazorth
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        23 days ago

        Its almost like handing out control of something as critical and a natural monopoly as water supplies to the Saudi’s is a bad idea.

        FYI they also paid their Saudi overlords £37 million earlier this year.

        The Aussie owners before them milked it and generated most of this debt.

    • Streamwave
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      21 days ago

      Well, bit of good news for you there – included in Labour’s Kings Speech was a bill to make CEOs of water companies individually criminally liable in egregious cases of sewage pollution etc.

  • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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    23 days ago

    “In June, the Guardian revealed that Thames’ board approved a £150m dividend …”

    So they approved a 150m dividend while knowing they had a 156m shortfall in their pension system. What the…

    • frazorth
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      23 days ago

      That was after the £37m dividend they paid their owners.

    • Streamwave
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      21 days ago

      IIRC, since privatisation the total amount of water company debt is roughly equivalent to the total amount paid out in shareholder dividends in the same timeframe