The Guardian

Taxpayers lost out, and consumers have paid through the nose ever since. This failed regime is long past its sell-by date

• Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant

“You could be an H2Owner.” That was the slogan, to the sound of Handel’s Water Music, of the 1989 campaign to sell shares in the 10 water and sewage companies of England and Wales – not quite as memorable as British Gas’s earlier “Tell Sid” campaign, but almost as successful. Although water privatisation was extremely unpopular, with every poll showing that a substantial majority of people were opposed to the policy, that didn’t stop more than 2.5 million people applying for shares. The offer was nearly six times oversubscribed.

The only surprise is that it wasn’t much more. Long before anyone talked about “magic money trees”, the Thatcher government offered one: this was free money to anyone who filled in the application form. The average gain to investors on the first day of trading was 40%, and over the next two decades the privatised water companies paid more than £57bn in dividends, at the same time as running up large amounts of debt, the interest on which is effectively paid for by customers.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant

Fightback comes amid concerns race to replace Boris Johnson could lead to rollback of environmental policies

A leading group representing green-minded Conservatives has called for the new prime minister to take urgent action to insulate more homes and scale up the installation of heat pumps to help poorer households with energy bills.

The Conservative Environment Network (CEN), which has the support of 133 Tory MPs, half the backbench parliamentary party, said its plan could be rolled out in parallel with measures to directly help with this winter’s fuel costs and would help move the UK towards its net zero goals, as well as saving people money.

Henry Dimbleby says move is politically toxic but only way to achieve sustainable land use and avoid ecological breakdown

• Revealed: the most damaging farm products
• How can the UK reduce meat consumption and cut emissions?

The only way to have sustainable land use in this country, and avoid ecological breakdown, is to vastly reduce consumption of meat and dairy, according to the UK government’s food tsar.

Henry Dimbleby told the Guardian that although asking the public to eat less meat – supported by a mix of incentives and penalties – would be politically toxic, it was the only way to meet the country’s climate and biodiversity targets.

David Black also says most firms are meeting leakage targets despite water shortages in England

The head of the water regulator for England and Wales has defended water companies against criticism over not building new reservoirs despite high levels of executive bonuses and shareholder dividends.

David Black, the chief executive of Ofwat, also said old pipes were not to blame for leaks and that most companies were meeting their leakage targets.

Oil firm wins decision against environmental protesters blocking 105km-long Southampton-to-London pipeline project

The oil company Esso has secured an interim high court injunction to prevent environmental protesters disrupting construction work on a 105km-long aviation fuel pipeline.

Activists have targeted efforts to replace most of the underground Southampton to London pipeline by interfering with equipment and “attacking” it with angle grinders, a judge was told.

Polish scientists only found elevated salt levels after thousands of dead fish were found floating in the central European waterway

Mystery continues to surround the cause behind a “catastrophic” mass die-off of fish in the Oder River, after Polish scientists said laboratory tests found elevated salt levels but no other toxic substances in the central European waterway.

German municipalities have banned bathing and fishing in the Oder after thousands of dead fish were found floating in the 520 mile (840km) river, which runs from the Czech Republic to the Baltic Sea along the border between Germany and Poland.

Yellow thunderstorm warning follows weeks of drought caused by extreme heat and little rainfall

Heavy rain and thunderstorms could cause “dangerous” flooding this week in cities and rural areas across the UK, forecasters have warned.

The Met Office has issued a yellow thunderstorm warning for most of the UK on Monday and Tuesday with the possibility of flash flooding, disruption to transport and power cuts.

Farming union chief says situation ‘nothing short of a travesty’, as crops also hit by drought and record heat

As much as £60m of food has been wasted on farms because of a labour shortage, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which found at least £22m of fruit and vegetables had been wasted so far this year.

The NFU said 40% of respondents to a survey of its members said they had suffered crop losses as a result of labour shortages, with farms 14% short of the size of the workforce they needed on average. The problems were worsened by some staff not turning up for work or quitting early.

Multimillion-pound payouts should be shelved until investment put in to help country recover from drought

• What are UK water company chief executives paid?

Water company bosses should be stripped of their multimillion pound bonuses until they fix leaks and build reservoirs, politicians and campaigners have said as the country is gripped by drought.

The current drought, in which parts of England are the driest they have been since records began after five consecutive months of below average rainfall, have led to homes running out of water, rivers turning dry and farmers facing crop failures, causing many to be outraged at the companies that have failed to invest in reservoirs, fix leaks and stop sewage pollution from their pipes.

Ex-chief scientist David King says outgoing PM must deliver fiscal policies to support poorer people

Boris Johnson should intervene urgently to start insulating British homes and introduce fiscal policies to reduce bills, as further delay will mean more people face “extreme suffering” this winter as energy bills soar, a former government chief scientific adviser has warned.

David King said: “This could be the worst possible time for the leadership of this country to be simply sitting back. We’re waiting until what? We have an energy crisis right now and we need good leadership. We need alert leadership, leadership that is thinking about this – and that is missing.”

We see grassland ablaze and parched gardens. The water companies are doing too little to fix a problem that isn’t going away

With more than 30 million people in England and Wales facing a hosepipe ban, and thunderstorms expected but no meaningful rainfall likely for many weeks, it’s worth asking what we have learned so far in the great drought of 2022.

Here’s a bit of a list, by no means complete.

John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor

Just because some selfish walrus-gawking raspeballs couldn’t keep a safe distance from her, she was killed by the fish cops

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World leaders urged to agree treaty to protect marine life after groups say planet’s last wilderness treated ‘recklessly’

UN member states will gather in New York to hammer out a long-awaited treaty that, if agreed, will govern the planet’s last, lawless wilderness: the high seas.

Two hundred nautical miles beyond the territorial waters and jurisdiction of nations, the high seas have been treated “recklessly”, according to environmental groups.

Government policy amounts to ‘keeping fingers crossed’ rather than acting to adapt to changing climate, says infrastructure chief

England is failing to invest in the water networks needed to avoid a future of recurrent serious droughts, with current policies amounting to the government “keeping [its] fingers crossed”, the UK’s infrastructure chief has warned.

The current drought was a warning that water systems could not cope with the changing climate, with more hot dry spells interspersed with heavier rainfall, said Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission.

The first major climate law passed in the US comes not a moment too soon for a burning planet

When the House of Representatives passed landmark climate legislation on Friday, Joe Biden chalked up one of the surprise successes of his presidency. Only last month his ambitious agenda appeared sunk after a conservative Democrat and coal baron, Joe Manchin, refused to back it. His vote is crucial in an evenly divided Senate. However, the climate proposals were largely resurrected in the form of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), co-authored by Mr Manchin, which Congress approved.

The first major US climate law comes not a moment too soon. It is the country’s best and last opportunity to meet its goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and, with it, a world where net zero by mid-century is possible. After Donald Trump, Mr Biden can reclaim the mantle of global climate leadership for the US. But the act reveals the limits of his power.

Consumers say yes, the numbers add up, industry is largely on board and Labor has no policy hang-ups. This week could be the turning point

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Last week an acquaintance who owns a secondhand Japanese electric car, brought to Australia as part of a bulk purchase by the Good Car Company, posted a quiet boast. His wife had put their Nissan Leaf in for its annual service. No major problems were found – just an underinflated tyre. The total bill? $120.

Reading that sent me to the mess of my glovebox to work out how much I had paid mechanics to keep my Subaru Outback running over the past year. It added up to more than $700.

Lib Dem councillor calls for company to be fined over the incident

Thames Water has been accused of repeatedly ignoring warnings about cuts to supplies and burst pipes in Surrey where hundreds of households had to endure three days without tap water at the height of this weekend’s heatwave.

Residents, including some that were vulnerable, had to queue for bottled water on Saturday in temperatures of well over 30C (86F) after a pump failure at Netley Mill treatment works.

Young 600kg female had been basking in waters of Norway’s capital and attracting crowds who disturbed her rest

A walrus nicknamed Freya that attracted crowds while basking in the sun in the Oslo fjord has been euthanised.

“The decision to euthanise was taken on the basis of a global evaluation of the persistent threat to human security,” the head of Norway’s fisheries directorate, Frank Bakke-Jensen, said in a statement.

Without lots of heavy rain in autumn and winter, water restrictions could be tightened even further

South-east England could be tipped into severe and devastating drought without above-average rainfall this winter, while current water use restrictions in London and surrounding areas are expected to last until the new year even if rainfall returns, ministers have been told. Severe drought would mean even tighter restrictions, such as bans on non-essential uses of water including cleaning windows and filling and maintaining swimming pools.

Though it is too soon to forecast weather for this winter, anything less than substantial rainfall could lead to London being placed under much stricter measures next year, experts have told the Observer. One Whitehall source said officials were being told to prepare for a potential severe drought throughout the south-east.

Residents of Everton, Bedfordshire, have learned to live with an on-off supply, and are always prepared for the worst

Yvonne Hinde opens her fridge to reveal three big bottles of water. There are two buckets full in her garden. “We have to be prepared,” she says. She isn’t being dramatic. Like other residents of Everton in Bedfordshire, Hinde, 59, a childminder, can no longer take running water for granted.

Since the start of July the supply has been severely interrupted or cut off five times. Often the taps run dry for hours at a time. The problems have forced the pub to close and the village school to tell children to stay at home. “It makes life really difficult,” says Hinde, who is forced to close her business when the water isn’t running.