Budgeting for water loss

Water, water, every-where,
Nor ‘ere a drop to drink

Never has the oft-used quote from Coleridge’s The Tale of the Ancient Mariner been more appropriate, than the morning I write this. However, more of that later.

I was, of course, going to write about last week’s Budget. About some of the headlines to come out of it, which, newsworthy though they are, don’t tell the whole story. As usual, the Chancellor’s Statement – Rachel Reeves’ second – is the proverbial curate’s egg.  There are some good parts, depending on where you sit in the economy, and there are some pretty crappy parts, especially if you planned to squirrel away great chunks of your money into a pension pot. Or you have elderly parents. Or are an elderly parent. Or a business owner.

There is more funding for new towns: for which building materials will need to be made and sold. So that’s not too bad. Plus, a further £48 million over the next 3 years will be spent to boost capacity & capability in local planning authorities in England. Alas, there was no shot-in-the-arm for the housing sector, similar to Help To Buy, as lobbied for by the BMF and the three housebuilder organisations.

There is funding for more roads, including more bunce for local authorities to repair potholes. Lobbying by the BMF and others did work in terms of the decision not to go ahead with plans to harmonise the rates of Landfill Tax in England & Northern Ireland. Yet there is no change to the frustrations caused by the Extended Producer Responsibility to deal with packaging waste, something the BMF is concerned about.

The changes to the National Minimum Wage in last year’s Budget already caused headaches for employers. These will continue with the increases announced last week, which range from 6% to 8%.  It doesn’t sound much, £10/hr to £10.85hr, but it will impact a great many industries which tend to use a younger workforce. Hospitality, for example, which is pretty much on its knees as it is. And I know people who would bite your arm off for a pay-rise of a quarter of that.

The changes to Inheritance Tax – possibly bringing Trusts (currently exempt from IHT) and pensions into the pot to be charged – and the imposition of NI contributions on salary sacrifice pension contributions above £166 a month, are not happening immediately. They will be Tomorrow-Us problems, but that doesn’t mean they won’t hurt when they do hit.

Back to Coleridge. We take the wet stuff that comes out of the tap when we turn it on for granted. We drink it, wash in it, cook with it, flush it away with our waste….except when we can’t.

Over 24,000 homes in my neck of the woods have been without water since Saturday afternoon. By this morning (Tuesday), 10,000 had had supplies restored. The rest of us have to wait until 6pm tonight. Or 8am tomorrow, or 6pm tomorrow evening…..The goal posts aren’t so much changing as sprinting across the field to hide in the clubhouse.

This happened to similar numbers in the same area a couple of years ago, and has been replicated in other regions over the years . This time it was down to a dodgy batch of chemicals turning up at the treatment works, which mean the water had to be turned off until a new batch was delivered, installed and working. Any houses and businesses which were below the level of the pumping station were fine – gravity innit – but those on the level or above, which is most of the town, are still empty.

Problems do occur in any business, we know that. I won’t use the obvious phase as that’s a pun too far, even for my puerile sense of humour, it’s how you deal with the issues that people will remember you for. And while the operation to collect packs of bottled water (the environment, will no-body think of the environment – *wails*) from the Sports Centre carpark was slick as anything, the information given out on Saturday afternoon when it happened was dismal.

It’s the lack of back-up plans until the proverbial hits the fan that’s so annoying. And has got my local MP baying to be brought the head of the South East Water CEO.  The lack of investment in our water infrastructure over the years, the trousering of the dividends by corporate shareholders has been well-documented, not least in this column. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating for householders and worrying for businesses that can’t operate without running water. It’s not like the economy is likely to help them make up for the losses.

Heyho. I’m off to my Mum’s for a shower. Lucky me that I can do that.