Southern Water's efforts at scrutiny 'a PR exercise' says Horsham councillor

In July, Dennis Livingstone (Lib Dem, Nuthurst & Lower Beeding) joined representatives from councils across the south at a workshop arranged by Southern Water at their HQ in Worthing.

Reporting to a meeting of the overview & scrutiny committee on Wednesday (September 11), Mr Livingstone said the aim had been to explore if and how the company could meet with councils to respond to issues raised.

But Conservative leader Philip Circus (Con, West Chiltington, Thakeham & Ashington) had doubts about the motives behind the meeting.

Mr Circus, a council veteran of 42 years, said: “We have to engage with them but I’m sceptical. I think this is probably a PR exercise fundamentally. Why? Because they know that if there was a referendum today on whether the water companies should be re-nationalised, I think we know that the majority of people would probably vote for renationalisation of the water companies.

“They know that and therefore I suspect the genesis of this lies in what is fundamentally a PR exercise – and I think we need to be careful about being swept up into something that is designed, to a degree, to whitewash companies who don’t deserve to be whitewashed.”

Mr Livingstone recognised the concern, but reported that Southern Water could be asked to attend more than 50 meetings per year by local authorities.

This proved problematic when it came to making sure the right people were available to go along and answer questions.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Southern Water had proposed a 91% increase in bills by 2030, citing the need for ‘significant investment’ in its infrastructure.

Mr Livingstone said he spoke to engineers while at the HQ, adding: “They admitted that they have severe problems, there’s no doubt about it.

“They need to have money spent on the infrastructure. It is failing. They have problems with the system that’s been installed – and they do still have a lot of Victorian infrastructure that needs updating and replacing.

“We have to be involved in these meetings to make sure at least we are up-to-date with other areas.”

A spokesman for Southern Water said that, as far as they were aware, no referendum about nationalisation would be happening.

They added: “We’re keen to continue working closely with councils across our region and looking at ways we can best engage with them.

“We regularly attend council meetings including overview and scrutiny committee meetings. Alongside this we are also organising county updates across region where we provide information about various issues to councils in West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight.”