Water companies cannot be trusted with tax payers' money

In that letter - written two years ago to the month - Mr Black categorically insisted water companies were to ‘make the environment integral to all that we do, and that companies need to improve the environment as a core part of their business, so that we leave our environment in a better state than we found it.’

That same year, the regulator said in its annual performance report that Yorkshire Water was a worry, citing its ‘weak levels of financial resilience.’ Also flagged in that report as having reasons for concern? Thames Water.

Scroll forwards two years and Thames Water - which supplies a quarter of the UK population - yesterday forced the government into wargaming for its demise as its outgoing chief executive, Sarah Bentley, left behind a flailing firm drowning in debts totalling £14bn. She joined the firm just three years ago - and was welcomed with a £3.1m golden hello.

And that sums up everything that is going wrong with the running of our water companies; too much public money is being syphoned off by way of dividends and bonuses into the pockets of executives and stakeholders and not nearly enough is flowing back into the infrastructure so badly needed in order to keep our water and waste systems running well.

Now, we are told those same executives want more - 40 per cent more - from their customers in order to fix the sewage pollution crisis that has arisen on their watch.

This, quite frankly, has all the hallmarks of a self-serving swindle, brazenly picking the pockets of a hard-pressed public at a time when we can ill-afford to be ripped off. The government must act, fast.