Londoners react to Thames Water bill rises and bail out

We ask Londoners for their take on Thames Water’s recent plea for a bail out, and mounting price hikes.

Transcript

00:00Thames Water is seeking court approval for an emergency financial lifeline as it risks

00:08running out of funds in just four weeks time. The company is also weighing up whether to

00:14challenge a decision by the water industry regulator Ofwat, which approved a 35% bill

00:20increase over inflation over the next five years, less than the 53% that Thames requested.

00:27So how do Londoners feel about the bailout and about a potential rise in water bills?

00:35I think it's, well, I think it's going to be difficult for people who are kind of on

00:38benefits or people who are just at that sort of level. I'm disabled and I've got arthritis

00:44so I need quite a lot of baths and things to help me. So I think it would be quite difficult

00:50for me personally. And I suppose it's difficult without knowing why they want a bailout. And

00:58you seem to hear that quite often at the moment, companies wanting bailouts. But yeah, I think

01:05it's gonna be quite difficult for me personally.

01:07It's not good, especially already in the cost of living crisis that we're already in. I

01:13think it's going to leave a lot of work class people specifically very devastated. In terms

01:19of can we do anything to stop it? I feel like it's very limited. These companies were

01:25talking about like multi-billionaires. And obviously as a society, same as energy bills,

01:35I don't feel like we can do much.

01:37That sounds really worrying because bills are already really high, not just water bills

01:41but all the other bills too. So any increase is a concern, especially as water companies

01:47generally have not had a good reputation for properly investing. So I would be really

01:54concerned that my bills are going up with that that might be benefiting shareholders

01:59more than Londoners.

02:00I also think that they should just be showing us whether that's through the news or through

02:05their social media platforms, them trying to do more active things to essentially like

02:12show that they're using more sustainable ways to obviously filter their water.

02:18So I think it is important that we look after our environment. And I think there is significant

02:28investment required because our waterways and our sewers are ancient. And I do think

02:37that we have a responsibility to act with Thames water to deal with these leaks. So

02:49I think it could be reasonable to put the prices up, but I think there need to be some

02:54safeguards in place for those who can't afford it.