A PUBLIC-INTEREST RECEIPT

THEY SAID
SAVE WATER.
WE ASK: WHERE
DID IT GO?

Customers are funding a £75 million behaviour-change campaign while the industry loses almost three billion litres a day through leaks. This is the evidence, the money trail and the organisations that must answer.

See the receipt Open the contract

Let’s Save Water campaign advert on the side of a London bus, featuring a child and the words Save Some Water For Us — London, 18 September 2026. The message is aimed at you. The bill is, too.

£75M ADVERTISING CONTRACT•2.869BN LITRES LEAKED DAILY•PAID THROUGH CUSTOMER BILLS

THE RECEIPT

What they ask of you. What they lose themselves.

THE ASK

28litres per person, per day

The campaign’s requested saving from every person in England.

Campaign website

THE LEAK

46.4litres per person, per day

Water lost from company networks across England and Wales.

Ofwat leakage data

Network leakage is about 66% greater per head than the English saving requested by the campaign. Both demand and leakage matter. Only one is being advertised at you from the side of a bus.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Not “all taxpayer money.” The truth is stronger.

Most continuing extraction comes from captive customer bills, not general taxation. At privatisation, taxpayers also cleared the starting line.

£52BN

Ofwat’s dividend count

Ofwat’s narrower official estimate of dividends paid over roughly 34 years.

£85.2BN

Wider research estimate

University of Greenwich analysis. Ofwat disputes it; methodology and inflation treatment explain part of the gap.

£6.4BN

Public support at sale

£4.9bn of sector debt assumed by government plus £1.5bn in public funds in 1989, before inflation.

Parliament on dividends Commons Library on privatisation

LONDON CASE STUDY

BECKTON DESALINATION PLANT

Built for drought. Missing in a drought.

Thames Water’s Beckton plant opened in 2010 as emergency drought infrastructure. It cost about £250 million to build. By August 2026 its estimated total cost had reached £500 million, yet it had reportedly supplied only seven days of drinking water and run five times. Thames Water’s chief executive called it “a big problem” and “not a good investment.” It was unavailable during London’s 2026 drought.

Read the reported evidence

£250Moriginal build cost

£500Mestimated total cost

7 DAYSof drinking water supplied

ZEROhelp during summer 2026

ACCOUNTABILITY CHAIN