Water bill rise: 'This price hike is a disgrace and should be scrapped'

Responding to Water UK announcing that water bills will rise in April, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for North Cotswolds Paul Hodgkinson said:

“Local people will find it unbelievable that the same water firms who are polluting our rivers are putting up bills whilst giving millions in bonuses to their bosses.

"This price rise should be scrapped. There should be no increase in bills for residents until water firms scrap insulting overseas dividends and exec bonuses. It is ludicrous that Gloucestershire’s Conservative MPs are letting them get away with it.

Cllr Hodgkinson (GCC, Bourton and Northleach) first highlighted the sewage scandal in Gloucestershire when he called for action by the County Council in 2020. He successfully proposed the setting up of a county task group to investigate the problem, taking evidence from water companies and lobby groups and then recommending actions. That task group set out its views and recommendations in 2022.

“Gloucestershire does not have a single stretch of river which is classed as ‘bathing status’ - in other words someone could swim in it without risking illness through pollution. Rivers like the Coln in the Cotswolds have had record amounts of raw sewage discharged into them recently yet now we are being hammered with rises in our bills which are above inflation. 

“This has a dreadful stink about it. People will be rightly angry that they are being asked to pay much more to the polluters.”