Adrian Ramsay responds to an FT investigation revealing that Anglian Water withheld funds for repairs while distributing £2.5 billion to shareholders

Adrian Ramsay responds to an FT investigation revealing that Anglian Water withheld funds for repairs while distributing £2.5 billion to shareholders

An investigation by the Financial Times has found that Anglian Water is one of four water companies that underspent their infrastructure budgets between 2010 and 2025, despite the industry's repeated claims that low customer bills were to blame for a failure to fix ageing pipes and networks.

Reacting to the investigation, Adrian Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley, said 

"It's one thing to run out of money for essential repairs. Anglian Water had money to spare and still didn't spend it.

An FT investigation found it was one of four water companies that underspent their infrastructure budgets between 2010 and 2025, while paying out £2.5bn in dividends.

This is unacceptable. The public is rightly demanding action to clean up our rivers, and instead they're watching companies bank cash that should have gone into fixing crumbling pipes and ending sewage spills. People are paying record bills while shareholders profit, and rivers remain polluted. 

Water companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. That's why I'm pressing for the water companies to be brought under public ownership, so the money goes into fixing the infrastructure, not into shareholders' pockets."

 ENDS