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Politicians face a perpetual conflict between what's expedient at the moment and what they ought to do for the long term. The tendency for expediency to prevail worsens longer-term consequences.
Expedience means different things to different people. Steve Reed — the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — gave a full-on green light to SESRO on 20 June 2025. Doubtless he will say that he was thinking of the long-term need for water in South East England. The Labour Party promised if elected to bring the railways into public ownership. Their main declaration on water was to force water companies to clean up our waterways. Given the known precarious financial positions of Thames Water, Southern Water and South East Water — all highlighted by Ofwat in election year — this was an utterly shallow promise. Yes, pollution is absolutely the number one problem in England's water environment. Yes, the Water-and-Sewage Companies are responsible for a lot of this. But highway runoff, agriculture, landfill and fly-tipping are polluting factors too. Where was the new leadership?Ideology applied to the wrong sector
Margaret Thatcher made privatisation of utility companies fashionable in many nations. However, England is the only country in the world with a fully privatised water and sewerage system. With enterprise unleashed, there were some initial successes when the regional water authorities were privatised in 1989. Yes, wastewater treatment improved over quite a period. Ending the dumping of sewage sludge at sea was a great achievement. But the financial and environmental successes soon stalled. The commodification of water was a complete disaster. With industrial use set back by other aspects of Thatcherism, it was domestic use that soared. Both culture and the water companies encouraged this. We've paid for the water, let's use it. Ever more frequent car-washing and window-cleaning, and seasonal sprinlking of lawns. Heavy water-use became normalised. This continues today with TV monitors sold for use in bathrooms and (even) shower cubicles.It became fashionable and profitable for commercial horticulture to provide customers with year-round salad crops: you know, those healthy things that linger on supermarket shelves and then in domestic fridges ... before all too often getting dumped.
Greater quantities of water used → greater quantities of wastewater.
What a blast
The Kärcher pressure washer is designed to be water-efficient: to clean things more efficiently than with a standard garden hose. It's not the product but the devaluation of water that has led to abuse. Personal energy and prissiness are factors too. Why pressure-wash or apply chemicals to clean paving slabs? It seems that, as a nation, we love garden birds but hate lichen: somehow overlooking that garden birds value it in nest-building.Grey Germans
For a period around the turn of the millennium, it looked like the German appetite for using greywater might take off in England. Greywater is previously used water or gathered rainwater. It's fine for garden irrigation and flushing loos, as is butt water — of the pluvial kind. To their credit, Thames Water took on a greywater experiment at the Millennium Dome. But, even before the Financial Crisis of 2008, leading housebuilders in the UK let their greywater ambitions leak away. It had mainly just been talk. It was tricky for DIYers to lead the way: retrofitting within the home needs care and regulation to avoid health hazards. Iconic developments and major football stadiums quite often now incorporate greywater. But it's never made the mainstream in the UK. There are of course eye-catching exceptions. Please don't search for the number of houses involved or whose money is being spent. You'll be disappointed.Close-coupling
Another expediency came with introduction of the Water Regulations 1999. These allowed close-coupled WCs. Everybody loved them: more compact and no need for an external overflow pipe from the cistern. The change simplified dual-flush systems and undoubtedly led to greater water efficiency when well-installed and adequately maintained. Focus – water closets — published in 2002 but still considered relevant in 2012 — presents an excellent review of the practical difficulties.The reduced flush-sizes were undoubtedly progressive. But both the changes from syphon to inlet valve and from external to internal overflow were regressive for water efficiency. Good in theory but not in practice. No washer lasts for ever, particularly in the harder-water areas typical of South and East England. Leakage — when the inlet valve fails to close fully or when the washer at the bottom of the cistern degrades — can be appreciable and continuous without being obvious. Many will think their bill higher because of a price rise or that their usage has been higher due to a seasonal factor.