In the last post, I explained why DSARs, FOIs, and EIRs are the sharpest weapons available to customers who want to hold the water industry to account. Used by one person, these tools expose cracks in the system. Used by thousands, they could bring the entire industry to its knees. This post asks the question: what happens if we all act together?
The Scale of the Threat
Every DSAR, FOI, or EIR request requires a company or regulator to:
- Locate every piece of relevant data.
- Review it for compliance.
- Redact sensitive material.
- Compile and deliver the results within legal deadlines.
Even a single request can consume hours of staff time. Now multiply that by hundreds, or thousands.
- 100 coordinated DSARs sent to a water company could generate weeks of work for compliance teams.
- 1,000 requests across all UK water companies could overwhelm the sector entirely.
- If insurers are drawn into the net — forced to disclose correspondence with water companies — the pressure doubles.
This is not protest. It is lawful, structured accountability. But its impact is explosive.
What Could Be Revealed
The results of a mass action would not just create administrative strain. They would expose truths companies want buried:
- Internal memos admitting responsibility while telling customers the opposite.
- Board-level discussions of profit extraction versus reinvestment.
- Detailed logs of sewage spills and leak rates.
- Communications between water companies and insurers about shifting liability.
With thousands of households participating, a national archive of evidence could be built. Every disclosure chips away at the myth of “reliable service” and “responsible management.”
The Insurance Dimension
Insurance companies cannot hide if customers begin targeting them with DSARs too:
- Records of disputes where insurers challenged water companies.
- Correspondence about who pays for underground leaks.
- Internal forecasts of rising claims caused by failing infrastructure.
The overlap is critical: the cost-shifting strategy of water companies only works as long as insurers quietly absorb it. If the paperwork proves otherwise, both industries are implicated.
Public Impact
Imagine the headlines when:
- Thousands of customers publish identical stories of cost-shifting.
- Internal documents confirm what the public already suspects about dividends and neglect.
- Leaked data shows water wasted at the same time as households face hosepipe bans.
The reputational collapse would be swift. Politicians could not ignore it. Regulators could not downplay it. Investors could not defend it.
The Numbers That Matter
- £1.8 billion leaves the industry every year in dividends.
- £60 billion of sector debt hangs over the system.
- 30% of treated water is lost to leaks in some regions.
- Hundreds of millions are already shifted quietly onto insurers.
Now add the cost of processing hundreds of thousands of legal information requests. Compliance teams would drown. Legal budgets would explode. The façade of control would collapse.
The Verdict
One person demanding the truth is an inconvenience. A thousand demanding it together is a crisis. The law gives us the right to information, but companies gamble on customers not using it. If that changes, the system as it stands cannot survive.
💧 Takeaway: Mass DSARs, FOIs, and EIRs are not just paperwork. They are weapons of accountability. If customers act together, they could uncover the hidden truths of our water and insurance industries — and force reform faster than any regulator ever has.