Steve Coogan Joins Lake Windermere Protesters Against Sewage Dumping

now the actor Steve kougan has joined protesters including fellow celebrities liac and of course fergo shaki in a very high-profile fight to stop sewage being dumped into Lake windir in the Lake District by the local water company United utilities United utilities have been accused of letting nearly 9,000 hours worth of untreated sewage flow into the lake they've also recorded more sewage spills overall than anyone else with more than 97,000 spills last year and we're joined Now by Steve kougan from the protest outside the United Utilities information center in windir and Chris Matthews the head of regional engagement for United utilities is down beside the lake Steve let's come to you uh first don't you think people watching this program will be shocked to find out that sewage is going into into Lake windir on this scale every year uh yes I think they will be shocked I mean uh United utilities have a big PR machine and they put nice fancy offices up like this and say we're working together with the people of windir but it's all a smoke screen to distract attention from what they've been doing over the last 30 years which is putting treated and untreated sewage into Lake windir to such an extent that there are toxic levels of algae there there are algae blooms in the summer that show the nitrate levels are like through the roof um and they've been doing this year on year um the they they're doing it legally and we have evidence that been illegally putting sewage into the lake uh they've been paying out record dividends to shareholders there's no excuse for this we're telling them to stop putting sewage in the lake and take out what they've put in it is possible Lake an in an ay in France was an example of a a lake that was absolutely filthy and they managed to clean it up so it is possible but it uh and they've said that they would pass that that the bill for that click clean up operation onto uh the bill payers um they shouldn't be allowed to do that they should take the money from the huge profits they made and just deny their shareholders a dividend for a couple of years put that money into the infrastructure uh to to clean up the lake uh they won't do that of course because they're not bound to do that and uh and of course they have a monopoly too they're not there's no competition here the customer can't go anywhere else so they've got them over a barrel so either they need to do it themselves which I doubt they will because they're priorities to the shareholders all the government needs to act uh or or whichever the next government is um and and put Forward Concrete proposals uh the shadow environment spokesman Reed has been pretty ineffectual uh talking about capping bonuses he tickling at the problem it needs to be dealt with once and for all Steve um could you just explain this to us because uh my in-laws have a caravan on windir our kids have been swimming in the lake for 20 years um I never knew that the utilities like United utilities are legally allowed to put sewage into the the water into the lake I mean if it's one thing for them to be doing it um ctly but but legally how come they're allowed to do this um it was to do with what was manageable soon as manageable at the time you know uh when the the rain is reaches a certain water table then then they're allowed to put in uh they allow they're allowed to put in sewage basically um all all the sort of privatized utility companies are allowed to do that and what makes it more Oben is that um they talk about that and they they know they're allowed to do this and and it's almost like the business model is predicated the business model which allows these record dividend of shareholders is predicated on the ability to put sewage in a lake and not do anything about it because to Sal that problem out would require huge investment that they're not proposed that they're not prepared to to put into it and over the last 30 years that when you interview the the or speak to the spokesperson of United utilities a perfectly nice man being paid a salary to try out the company line nevertheless which will be that they put 70 million in last year they're putting a further 40 million in this is chicken feed over the last 30 years1 billion has been paid out in dividends to shareholders since privatization last 30 years 12 billion so talking about CH chucking a few a few million here and there is chicken fees and it's just PR spin it's all greenwashing they Chu a bit of money they give a grant over here a grant over there it's all to stop people looking at the fundamental problem which is they are the biggest polluters in this country the biggest utility water utility company that pollute uh British waterways the Lakes should are there for everyone everyone in brit people who can't afford holidays abroad to be able to use the lake for recreation and they're not and and it's threatening that the the that that's something which is is a right for for ordinary people why to pay a few people non-d domiciles who've never put their foot in this country to to to uh to profit from from that Malian let's as you suggest Steve let's speak to the person who is there this morning at the beautiful late late windir the man um as Steve kugan says paid to salary to speak out on behalf of this company Under Fire this morning United utilities Chris Matthews how can you defend this appalling situation this environment agency data since 2020 your company has dumped more than 207,000 hours worth of untreated sewage finding it way into windir I mean it just makes it turns the stomach why are you doing it well good morning and we share the concerns that Steve has expressed there and many of the people about the Overflow operations and the impact on local water courses we're already investing to tackle this problem we are and we're investing to tackle this problem here at windir we've spent 75 million on our wastewater treatment to half the amount of phosphorus that goes into the lake the four B bathing Waters at windir all have an excellent status and we're going to be investing a further 41 million P to reduce overflow operation by half we we are taking this problem extremely seriously it's part of a huge investment program of over three billion pounds opposing for across the Northwest to tackle 400 overflows in the next 5 years SK will come down by 60% Chris can I ask what was the company's net profit last year so when it comes to to profits uh we reinvest our profits into our infrastructure question invest three times what we pay to our what was your net profit last year it's around about 300 million and what did you return to shareholders so the way that it works as to say is that we pay shareholders uh well we invest three times what we uh give out to shers and and so and and I think what's important to explain is that actually what we need from our shelers is the money up front to be able to invest in the the assets so we can solve the problem now that's what people want us to do yeah no what the question was was what dividend do shareholders get from United utilities because it is a privatized Monopoly business what would what did shareholders get because the figure I've got here you can confirm if this is true or not is 452 million in dividend well the figure that I I can share with you that is over the last 30 years we've invested some 22 billion pis is that figure correct had around seven billion is that figure correct that you returned 452 million pounds to shareholders in in the last year it it varies year to year so in the round over the last 30 years as I say so it varies year to year okay because what I'm saying is over 30 years yeah I didn't ask over 30 years I asked whether 452 million PS given in dividends to shareholders last year in a year where your company spilled 9,000 hours of untreated sewage into England's last largest lake will come as a bit of a shock to people because they'll be asking why don't you not pay those dividends to shareholders and simply clean up the lake so as I've been trying to explain the way that it works is that we need the money up front to be able to make the improvements to clean up the rivers and and lakes that people want to see so the way it works in our in our industry it's a bit like a mortgage with a house if you want to move into your house straight away you need the money up front to be able to do that and you repay that off over a period of time it's exactly the same way it works for our our system that we get the money from our investors they then get a return for giving us that money up front that's about 3 or 4% which is quite similar to what you get in your High Street bank or Building Society and what it means by having a system that works that way is we can invest now now to to to reduce the impact of storm overflow operation and deliver the benefits that people want to see Chris can I ask you a question um we've seen the numbers for the sewage flows into the water of windir in the last two or three years in the previous two or three years was the sewage flow into windir lower or higher Ian has it gone up so the amount of water that flows into indir depends on rainfall our system is typically only 15% full when it's dry I was have the sewage flows into but have the sewage flows into windmeter gone up in recent years or gone down well that depends on the level of rainfall so years when the rainfall is higher I'm just asking you a factual question in the last three years have the sewage flows gone up or down they've done both because of the level of rainfall that we receive each year the system is designed that when there's excess rainfall that rain needs to go somewhere go back into hom and buses and gens or go into the water I'm asking you whether over the last three years in total the sewage flows have been bigger or smaller than before so and I've answered that question which is depending on the amount of rainfall that falls each year FL will go up or down no no it's it's a yes or no answer in the last three years have they gone up compared to the previous three years so between 2020 and 2021 and 22 they went down in between 2022 and 2023 they went up have changed how about before point you know um you are doing really well I'm not answering my question let me explain this to you it's no it's not good enough to say we're going to invest now the question is whether your failure to invest five and 10 years ago has caused a problem now so did you do enough investing five and 10 years ago or are we reaping the consequences of underinvestment by United utilities yeah so what we are facing now are new requirements to invest in our Network to reduce spills to a level that they've not been reduced before they were set in the environment Act of 2021 on the government storm overflow plan so we have been investing in the past to meet uh targets to uh improve wastewater treatment uh and we've now facing new targets to reduce the frequency which which storm overflows uh operate so the reason why now is because you didn't invest enough in the past you've just answered that which I think is actually Steve's accusation so it looks like you both agree you didn't invest enough in the past that's causing the problem now no what what I'm saying is that uh in the past the system is designed in a certain way to operate which is when we get this extra rainfall that rain needs to go somewhere we don't want to see it in Homes and Gardens so it discharges into water courses people have said they want that design to change it's been around for over 100 years we completely agree that that design needs to change and that's what we're now investing to do and we've got an overall program going out to 2050 that's some 19 billion pounds in scale and size and can I just uh finish by asking the average household bill for United utilities customer for 2022 23 was £ 422 what is it going to be for 2425 so bills will uh be uh increasing to help fund the program that we've got ahead of us uh it's going to be about £25 a year that bills will go up about2 a month to help fund what is A4 billion plan okay Bills going up for customers okay Chris Matthews thank you very much indeed

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 63,570

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic

Id: fe7MhcuiCc4

Length: 12min 53sec (773 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024