{"id":15743,"date":"2018-07-19T15:01:21","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T14:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15743"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:36","slug":"hosepipe-ban-united-utilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15743","title":{"rendered":"‘Outrageous’ hosepipe ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A hosepipe ban imposed on 7m households in north-west England has been described as \u00e2\u20ac\u015boutrageous\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after it was revealed the water company that ordered it loses more than 439m litres a day through leaks.<\/p>\n

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United Utilities, which according to the Consumer Council for Water<\/a> has the second-worst record for losing water through leaking pipes, will implement the temporary ban from August 5.<\/p>\n

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Unite said the ban is a result of underinvestment in the network by the private company, which made \u00c2\u01411.6bn in after tax profits over the last five years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with \u00c2\u01411.2bn going in the pockets of shareholders.<\/p>\n

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Despite raking in massive amounts of cash, United Utilities is also proposing to close<\/a> its defined benefit pension schemes, thereby greatly eroding employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 retirement incomes.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for energy and utilities Peter McIntosh said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe ban is a result of significant underinvestment in United Utilities network and equipment. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a shortage of workers to carry out vital maintenance.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s outrageous that United Utilities are taking their mistakes out on customers by imposing a hosepipe ban. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather spend the money they make on obscene rewards for shareholders and directors.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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United Utilities loses 133 litres of water<\/a> per property per day, much higher than the industry average of 121 litres, with only Thames Water losing more at 179 litres and Southern losing the least at 80 litres.<\/p>\n

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In fact, the amount of water lost through United Utilities leaking pipes is almost the same as the region\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s average use of 132 litres per person per day.<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said the facts surrounding United Utilities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hosepipe ban strengthened the case for ending privatised<\/a> water.<\/p>\n

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Cartmail said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe lack of investment and mismanagement at United Utilities, the costs of which are pushed onto customers and staff while leaving shareholders to continue raking in profits, are another reason why water should be brought back into public ownership.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt makes absolutely no sense to have such an essential utility in the hands of firms whose first priority is to deliver a profit. Privatised water simply encourages fat cat bosses and shareholders to award themselves massive payments at the expense of everyone else.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hosepipe ban imposed on 7m households in north-west England has been described as \u00e2\u20ac\u015boutrageous\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after it was revealed the water company that ordered it loses more than 439m litres a day through leaks.   United Utilities, which according to the Consumer Council for Water has the second-worst record for losing water through leaking pipes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[641,252,186],"wps_subtitle":"United Utilities rakes in profits amid 439m liters lost each day to leaks","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26040,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15743\/revisions\/26040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}