Water, water everywhere
For a start can Thames Water stop texting me messages about saving water when it is pouring down outside and they lose 25% of the water they bother to collect. Strangely if I reply to them with some choice facts the messages are never delivered.
Secondly the industry has a huge PR problem and doesn’t seem to care.
It is not a nice job representing the indefensible but telling people all is fine when the beaches are smeared with merde is not a good look. Also, pointing out that water mains are difficult to repair because they are underground, is not something that will win big time at the annual PR awards.
I am pretty sure the Romans knew this one, if not the Babylonians.
The industry has had a free ride for decades, monopoly profits and a supine regulator and god does it show, even in their PR..
A new government should come down on them like a ton of bricks. New investment levels, huge fines for missed targets, criminal prosecutions for misleading regulators, or not monitoring sewage flows, clean beaches or a clear out at the top.
This can easily be done, it does not take nationalisation, although that is an option.
It just needs a back bone and a government that cares and is willing to force the industry to care, again.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.