FORMER Undertones frontman-turned-rivers-campaigner Feargal Sharkey brushed off “finger-pointing” by the boss of Wessex Water as he argued at the GMB conference today for a public inquiry into Britain’s polluted waterways scandal.

Mr Sharkey told a fringe meeting that the government had been fined in the European courts in 2012 for allowing water companies to dump sewage into rivers in breach of environmental laws.

“I think it’s time for a public inquiry … into the water industry and how the British public has been screwed and lied to,” he said.

Colin Skellett, the long-serving outgoing chief of Wessex Water, said that water companies spend in line with targets set by the Environment Agency and investments allowed by Ofwat, claiming that the focus should be how to “focus the investment where it delivers the best value for the environment and customers” under a Labour government.

But Mr Sharkey accused water companies of “consistently, knowingly, wilfully” breaking the law for decades.

“When people complain about ‘we didn’t get the investment we need,’ you need to be aware that water companies have a statutory legal right to appeal any decision made by Ofwat to the competition commission.

“When in 33 years has any single water company ever appealed over the amount of funding they get to deal with the environment and the impact they are having?

“Here’s the reality of the situation: we have companies that are quite frankly out of control. They have quite frankly gamed the system and as, for the environment, I’ve never come across a more hopeless joke of a regulator [the Environment Agency] in my entire history — and I say that as a former regulator.”

Mr Skellett, who described unions as “really good partners,” agreed that chief executives should not be paid “if they do not deliver” and added that shareholders should receive only the base rates set by Ofwat, currently at about 5 per cent at Wessex Water.

He criticised the regulator for “micromanaging” and overly focusing on lowering bills, instead of infrastructure investment, and called for “strong environmental protection that focuses on the polluttees” such as farms. 

The Wessex Water boss agreed that Ofwat would eventually need replacing after it returned to being an “economic regulator,” adding: “What we should also be doing is given the regulator powers to assess somebody coming in. Why the hell would you let somebody in whose reputation is for asset-stripping?”