‘Modest increase in water bills’ to pay for £10bn investment, says industry chief

Published

2 years ago

May 18, 2023

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A £10bn investment from water companies to stop sewage spills will be paid for by customers through “modest increases to their bills”.

Ruth Kelly, chair of Water UK, told Sky News that water firms will provide a “huge multi-billion down-payment” to start “the biggest transformation project since Victorian times”.

She added: “The way the system works is that over the lifetime of the assets, customers do pay that money back in modest increases in their bills.”

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Ms Kelly said that over the last 10 years, water bills have fallen for most people and “research shows us that customers are prepared to pay a little bit more to see this sort of investment undertaken”.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said customers will be contributing to the works for 50 years “or perhaps even longer, maybe up to 100 years”.

It comes amid outrage over the multi-million pound bonuses and dividends paid to water company bosses despite huge levels of untreated sewage being pumped into the UK’s rivers.

Earlier, industry body Water UK pledged to invest £10 billion to clean up their act and said campaigners were “right to be upset” as it issued an apology.

But critics have questioned why firms aren’t paying to fix the problems themselves, with musician and clean river campaigner Feargal Sharkey saying the announcement is “nothing to celebrate whatsoever”.

Asked why customers are having to put their hands in their pockets when water companies paid £1.4 billion in dividends last year, Ms Kelly told Sky’s Ian King “dividends have been at very low levels compared to other sectors”.

She added: “As a sign of the seriousness with which the companies are taking this issue, all water company CEOs have come together and they said they’re not going to pay a single penny in bonuses out of customer funds this year.”

Sewage spills won’t be entirely eliminated

There were 301,091 sewage spills in 2022 in England, an average of 824 a day, according to Environment Agency figures.

A string of recent high-profile incidents, including a sewage discharge at a picturesque beach in Cornwall, have fuelled disgust over the issue.

Water UK said the £10bn comes in addition to a previous commitment to invest £3.1bn, and will be spent this decade.

This will pay for measures including enlarging and improving pipes and installing the equivalent of thousands of Olympic-sized swimming pools underground to hold surges in rainwater that would otherwise overload the system.

The package aims to cut sewage overflows by up to 140,000 each year, compared with 2020 levels.

However, Ms Kelly admitted sewage spills won’t be stopped completely because of the Victorian-era design of the system.

“You wouldn’t design a system like that today, but that is the system we’ve got. And it is going to take time to put that right,” she said.

“We won’t get to a situation where they [sewage spills] all disappear but we are going to make a dramatic impact on the harm by spills.”

Plans ‘don’t go far enough’

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, said Water UK’s apology and plans “don’t go far enough”.

“For years water companies have arrogantly dismissed the public’s fears of rivers, lakes and coastlines being damaged by sewage discharges,” he said.

“This announcement does nothing to match the billions water firms have paid out in dividends to overseas investors, or stop their CEO’s being handed multi-million pound bonuses.”

Mr Davey, whose party made significant gains in the local elections after putting sewage dumping at the heart of their campaign, also called on Environment Secretary Therese Coffey to apologise.

He said: “This Conservative government has been pathetic on stopping sewage discharges into rivers, and every Conservative MP owes their constituents an apology for voting against tougher action. It says a lot when profiteering polluters have the decency to apologise, yet the government refuse.”

UK

Trump threatens to sue BBC for $1bn over speech edit

Published

8 hours ago

November 11, 2025

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Trump threatens to sue BBC for bn over speech edit

Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn over edits the organisation made last year to one of his speeches.

The organisation has been engulfed in a crisis, forced to apologise on Monday after two of its most senior figures, including the director-general, resigned on Sunday night.

The defamation claim centres around a BBC Panorama documentary, which aired October 2024 and showed an edited speech made by Mr Trump before the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, in which he appeared to tell his supporters he was going to walk with them to the US Capitol and “fight like hell”.

In a letter dated 9 November, Florida-based lawyer Alejandro Brito set the BBC a deadline of 10pm UK time on Friday to respond, outlining three demands:

• Issue a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary,
• Apologise immediately,
• “Appropriately compensate” the US president.

He told the BBC it needed to “comply” or face being sued for $1bn.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”

‘Error of judgement’

On Monday, BBC chairman Samir Shah, one of the most senior figures still standing, apologised for the “error of judgement” in editing the video.

In a letter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of MPs, Mr Shah said Mr Trump’s speech was edited in a way that gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.

“The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement,” he added.

Director-general and head of BBC News resign

Concerns about the edited speech first came to light in a leaked memo from Michael Prescott, a former journalist and independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board.

As a result, BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness announced their resignations on Sunday evening, saying in emails to staff that mistakes had been made.

Mr Davie will address an all-staff meeting on Tuesday. While on her way into the Broadcasting House on Monday morning, Ms Turness defended the corporation, rejecting accusations of institutional bias.

Downing St stands by BBC – but chancellor says ‘lessons to be learned’

A spokesperson for the prime minister told reporters on Monday that the BBC wasn’t corrupt or institutionally biased.

Instead, they said it had a “vital role” to play in the modern age, but needed to ensure it acted “to maintain trust and correct mistakes quickly when they occur”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves also stood by the corporation, but said that “lessons do need to be learned”.

‘Nothing but an apology’

Veteran broadcaster and former BBC presenter Jonathan Dimbleby told Sky News, however, that the organisation owed the US president nothing more than an apology.

But former legal correspondent for the BBC Joshua Rozenberg also told Sky News that he believed the corporation would “very likely” consider settling with Trump.

Mr Trump’s attack on the BBC is the latest in a long string of multibillion-dollar battles he’s engaged with various media institutions.

UK

Rachel Reeves signals she will break tax pledges – and gives strongest indication she will lift two-child cap

Published

8 hours ago

November 11, 2025

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Rachel Reeves signals she will break tax pledges - and gives strongest indication she will lift two-child cap

Rachel Reeves has signalled she is going to break her manifesto tax pledges at the budget – and has given her strongest indication yet she will lift the two-child benefit cap.

The chancellor said the world has changed in the year since the last budget, when she reiterated Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise national insurance, VAT or income tax on “working people”.

“It would, of course, be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments, but that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending,” she told BBC 5Live.

“I have been very clear that we are looking at both taxes and spending,” she added.

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The chancellor also gave her strongest indication yet she will lift the two-child benefit cap at the budget on 26 November, saying it is not right a child is “penalised because they are in a bigger family”.

Ms Reeves blamed poor productivity and growth over the last few years on the previous government “always taking the easy option to cut investment in rail and road projects, in energy projects and digital infrastructure”.

She said she promised during the election campaign to “bring stability back to our economy”.

‘I’ll always do what’s right for UK’

“What I can promise now is I will always do what I think is right for our country, not the easy choice, but the thing that I think is necessary,” she added.

The chancellor blamed the UK’s lack of growth under her tenure on global conflicts, trade and tariffs over the past year.

In a dig at Donald Trump, who has imposed wide-ranging tariffs on countries around the world, she said: “The tariffs. I don’t think anyone could have foreseen when this government was elected last year that we were going to see these big increases in global tariffs and barriers to trade.

“And I have to be chancellor in the world as it is not necessarily the world as I would like it to be. But I have to respond to those challenges, and that’s the responsible thing to do.”

‘Children should not be penalised’

The government has, so far, resisted lifting the two-child benefit cap, which means a family can only claim child benefits for the first two children.

But, it is a contentious subject within Labour, with seven of its MPs suspended two weeks after the election for voting to scrap it, while others are aware it will cost £2.8bn to do so.

Former Labour prime minister and chancellor Gordon Brown has been pushing for Ms Reeves, who says he is her hero, to lift it.

She said she saw Mr Brown at Remembrance Sunday, where they “had a good chat and we’ve emailed each other just today”, as she revealed they speak regularly.

Ms Reeves added Mr Brown and Sir Tony Blair were big heroes of hers because they did so much to lift children out of poverty – the reason she went into politics.

Pushed on whether she would lift the cap, she said: “I don’t think that it’s right that a child is penalised because they are in a bigger family, through no fault of their own. So we will take action on child poverty.”

Mr Brown earlier told Sky News’ Mornings with Ridge and Frost he was “confident” of a two-child benefit cap change at the budget.

The latest YouGov polling found 59% of the public are in favour of keeping the cap in place, and only 26% thought it should be abolished.

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Rachel Reeves has borrowed, spent and taxed like there’s no tomorrow – and she’s coming back for more because she doesn’t have a plan or the strength to stand up to Labour’s backbenchers, who are now calling the shots.

“My message is clear: if Rachel Reeves reduces government spending – including the welfare bill, she doesn’t need to raise taxes again. “

UK

Eight people who could replace Tim Davie as BBC director-general

Published

8 hours ago

November 11, 2025

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Eight people who could replace Tim Davie as BBC director-general

After Tim Davie’s resignation announcement only a day ago, talk is turning to who could replace him and take on the highest-profile role in British broadcasting.

The BBC‘s director-general position is a crucial role, serving effectively as both the corporation’s chief executive and its editor-in-chief across television, radio and online.

Davie, who has worked for the BBC for 20 years and been in charge for the past five, is not stepping down immediately.

He said in his departure note to staff that he is “working through exact timings with the board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months”.

It is still early days, but here are some of the names being discussed as contenders for the role.

Charlotte Moore

Chief executive of Left Bank Pictures, a British independent TV and film production company owned by Sony, Charlotte Moore was chief content officer at the BBC for five years before leaving in the summer.

She was among those shortlisted when Davie got the job in 2020 and is known as the mastermind behind the commissioning of The Great British Bake Off.

In March 2023, she was awarded the Royal Television Society Judges Award in recognition of her leadership “through one of the most momentous years in [the BBC’s] history and having done so with an exceptional combination of steadfast level-headedness, confidence and creative flair”.

“The BBC is an extraordinary place to work,” she said in a statement when her move to Left Bank was announced.

“There’s nowhere quite like it that backs risk-taking, innovation and homegrown creativity with such commitment.”

James Harding

A former editor of the Times and director of BBC News, James Harding is the co-founder and editor of slow news venture Tortoise Media, which bought The Observer newspaper in December 2024.

Harding called for the BBC to be “put beyond the reach of politicians” in an interview with Sky News before giving the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival in the summer.

Establishing the independence of the BBC is critical “if we want to build confidence in shared facts and respect for the truth”, he said.

Jay Hunt

Jay Hunt is Apple TV+’s creative director for Europe and was appointed chair of the British Film Institute in 2024.

She has previously worked as chief creative officer for Channel 4, director of programmes at Channel 5 and controller of BBC One.

Channel 4 was named Channel of the Year at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in 2014 and 2016 under her leadership, and she was known for buying the rights to The Great British Bake Off from the BBC.

At Apple, she has overseen commissioning for award-winning shows such as Bad Sisters and Slow Horses.

Alex Mahon

After almost eight years as chief executive of Channel 4 – the first woman in the broadcaster’s history to take the helm – Alex Mahon left the role earlier this year to lead live entertainment group Superstruct Entertainment.

Superstruct owns and operates more than 80 music festivals across 10 countries in Europe and Australia, including Boardmasters in Cornwall and Mighty Hoopla.

Mahon’s move allowed her to earn a more lucrative remuneration package than the one on offer to her at Channel 4, Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman reported at the time.

Dawn Airey, Channel 4 interim chair, described her as a “great figure in British television” and said she had been “one of the most impactful CEOs” since the founding of Channel 4 in 1982.

She was the recipient of Variety’s 2020 International Achievement in Television Award and has been honoured with an International Royal Industrial Fellowship.

Dame Carolyn McCall

Dame Carolyn McCall has led ITV since she joined the channel in 2018, having served as chief executive of easyJet for seven years and chief executive of the Guardian Media Group for four years.

She was made a dame in 2016 for services to the aviation industry and an OBE before that in 2008 for services to women in business.

She has led ITV plc’s “significant transformation in the competitive digital media landscape since joining in 2018, successfully evolving it from a linear organisation to a strong linear and digital media, entertainment, and global production business”, her biography for the broadcaster states.

McCall is in the preliminary stages of talks with Sky, the owner of Sky News, over the possible sale of ITV’s media and entertainment division.

Sir Trevor Phillips

Another name that has been suggested by a few commentators is Sky News’s Sir Trevor Phillips, who presents Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips each weekend.

A businessman and journalist, Phillips has won Royal Television Society journalism awards three times. He is also a Times columnist and was shortlisted for Comment Writer of the Year in 2020.

Phillips, who was knighted in 2022 for services to equality and human rights, was previously head of current affairs for London Weekend TV (where he worked alongside BBC chair Samir Shah), chair of the London Assembly, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and president of the John Lewis Partnership Council.

His name has been mentioned as a possible contender on political website Guido Fawkes, as well as by Rod Liddle on Times Radio and journalist Stephen Pollard in a column for The Spectator, headlined: “Is this the man who can save the BBC?”

Senior BBC staff

Could the BBC look internally?

One name that has been mentioned is Jonathan Munro, who, since joining the BBC in 2014, has led news coverage “through every major story over the last decade”, his biography for the broadcaster states, from Brexit to UK general elections, and the death of the Queen to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

He became global director of BBC News in September 2024, and is also director of the BBC World Service and deputy chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs.

There is also Kate Phillips, who replaced Moore as chief content officer, the senior executive responsible for all the BBC’s network TV and radio output, in the summer.

She has only been in the role for a few months, having previously held the position of director of unscripted content. During the pandemic, she was acting controller of BBC One.

In other circumstances, BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness perhaps could have been a possible candidate to replace Davie, but she announced her resignation alongside his on Sunday night.