Southern Water in talks to import water from Norway — in the event of a severe drought
SOUTHERN WATER is in talks to import water from fjords in Norway — in the event of a severe drought.
The shock plan to bring in supplies from more than 1,000 miles away comes just a month after the firm’s boss Lawrence Gosden complained there was “too much rain”.
The company, which serves 4.7 million households in Sussex, Kent, and the Isle of Wight, is in conversations with a Norwegian firm to ship in 45million litres of water a day into Hampshire.
It stressed it was a “last resort option” amid concerns there would be shortfall while construction on a new reservoir takes place.
The cost would end up being added to customer bills.
It is likely to outrage households further as the average Southern Water bill is already expected to rise from £420 by 43 per cent to £603 by 2030, according to recent Ofwat documents.
The firm is majority owned by MacQuarie. The Australian investor previously came underfire for saddling Thames Water, which it owned between 2006 and 2017, with billions of pounds of debt so it could afford bumper dividends.
Southern Water imposed a hosepipe ban in August 2022, the first such for a decade, after a heatwave caused the driest July since 1935.
It was also ranked as one of the worst for sewage spills, pumping 317,285 hours of sewage from overflows in 2023, the Environment Agency found.
The Norwegian firm that it would use is Extreme Drought Resilience Service.
Its website says it offers to supply “those required to insure against critical shortages to their own water resources due to major outages or extreme drought”.
Tim McMahon, Southern’s managing director for water, said importation would be a “last minute contingency measure”.
He said it would only be used in the event of a drought in the early 2030s and “something considerably worse than the drought of 1976”.
Mike Keil, of the Consumer Council for Water, said that while customers want the security of having a reliable service, that should still come at a good value.
He said: “Water resources in the south of England are under intense pressure and water companies need to have a robust long-term plan, but that must not come at an unreasonable cost to customers or the environment.”
Meanwhile, the owner of South West Water yesterday said it had taken a £16million hit from parasite-contaminated water in parts of Devon.
Around 17,000 households in the town of Brixham had to boil their water for eight weeks because of the diarrhoea-causing bug that was in the supplies.
Pennon had to flush the network and provide bottles of water to affected customers.
It has also said it is paying £3.5million in compensation.
RIOTS HITS SALES
THE owner of All Bar One and Toby Carvery has blamed rioting in city centres for a summer sales slump.
Mitchells & Butler said sales growth slowed from 6.1 per cent in the second quarter to 2.5 per cent in the latest quarter.
Phil Urban, boss of the pub group, which also runs Harvester and Miller & Carter, partly blamed it on “an unseasonally cool summer and disruption caused by riots in city centres”.
The unrest was sparked by the stabbing of three girls in Southport, Merseyside, in July.
BUST AND WIN FOR BRA BOSS
AN ENTREPRENEUR who set up her own lingerie company from her living room has cashed in to the tune of £45.7million.
Sarah Tremellen, 58, launched Bravissimo in 1995 after finding a dearth of big-busted bra options when she was a size 34G during a pregnancy.
She previously said: “You don’t have to have big boobs to work here, but it helps.”
Almost three decades after setting up the firm she and her husband, Mike, have struck a deal to sell to Wacoal Europe, which also owns the bra brands Freya and Fantasie.
The Warwickshire-based firm, which started out with mail order, sells lingerie and swimwear up to L cups online and from 25 stores across the UK.
Mrs Tremellen said. “I have loved creating and growing Bravissimo. It has been an absolute privilege to be able to bring a range of bigger cup size lingerie and swimwear to so many wonderful women.”
AMAZON'S BRAG
AMAZON claims it is one of the top ten biggest payers of business rates in the UK.
It comes ahead of Government reforms set to level the playing field between online and high street shops. The online giant said it made a total tax contribution of £4.3billion, including PAYE contributions by 75,000 workers.
Its own tax bill came in at £932million. The disclosure comes a month before the Budget, with speculation the Treasury could raise the rate on logistics and warehouses, which online retailers use.
AI ADDS A BIT MORR
ARTIFICIAL intelligence cameras have helped keep shelves at Morrisons stocked and boost sales, the store’s chief said yesterday.
The grocer reported a 2.9 per cent rise in sales in the third quarter, which boss Rami Baitiéh said was helped by cameras monitoring stock and reordering when needed.
The supermarket confirmed it had struck a £331million ground rent deal on 76 shops to cut its debtpile from its £7billion takeover.