Taking a Leak on the Customers

London, like most cities on the long, narrow island of Great Britain, is fairly near the coast. When you reach the coast, large quantities of water are a noticeable feature. The city of London has a large river running right through the middle of it. Large quantities of water are a noticeable feature of many rivers, this one (the Thames) included. Accordingly, moisture delivery entrepreneuriality Thames Water has imposed hosepipe bans on domestic customers, and has applied for a drought order, which under the present government would probably allow it to impose washing, drinking and sweating bans, even though no drought yet exists. Meanwhile, Thames Water has been losing eight hundred and ninety-four million litres of water a day over the past year because of leaks in the pipes, the condition of which is the responsibility of Thames Water. Thames Water's target was to lose a mere eight hundred and sixty million litres per day, but the target proved unattainable, for the second year running, because London is built on clay soil and, unlike many cities, has traffic running through it which means that Thames Water is unable to dig up the roads. Thames Water is "investing £500,000 a day; £1bn over five years," because "no-one is more disappointed than us to have missed the overall target". It is probably safe to say that the shareholders who will reap dividends from Thames Water's pre-tax profits of three hundred and forty-six million pounds are less disappointed. Certainly Jeremy Pelczer, the chief executive, who called the above-described "a good set of results" is not particularly disappointed. Customers who have to pay twenty-four per cent price increases, over and above the rate of inflation, may well be less disappointed than Thames Water, but I am not sure anyone has asked them. The moisture provision industry regulator, Ofwat, has called Thames Water's performance "unacceptable", which obviously will make all the difference.