• Water bills: bill payers fronting up the costs for these firms failings is “scandalous”
• Ed Davey on Brexit 5 years on: Trump Presidency shows UK must lead in Europe to boost security and unlock growth
• NHS 2025 mandate: lack of ambition “falls so far short of the mark”
• Nearly 6,000 crimes still going unsolved every day
• £56m lost to online shopping fraud up 20% compared to last year
• Welsh Water price rise – customers paying the price for Government incompetence
• Cole-Hamilton highlights SNP failure on fuel poverty

Water bills: bill payers fronting up the costs for these firms failings is “scandalous”

Responding to water bills rising by £123 a year on average, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

It is absolutely scandalous that customers will now have to pay through the nose for the shocking failings of water companies. The whole thing stinks.

The government has gone nowhere near far enough in clamping down on these greedy firms and protecting people’s pockets from them.

Their Water Bill has a gaping hole in it after failing to back a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have ensured that creditors, not bill payers would front up the cost of bailing out these broken companies.

Ministers have to realise this endless cycle of failure and customers paying for it will continue until Ofwat is ripped up and replaced by a new regulator that will clamp down on these firms once and for all.

Ed Davey on Brexit 5 years on: Trump Presidency shows UK must lead in Europe to boost security and unlock growth

Commenting on the fifth anniversary of the UK leaving the EU, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The UK needs to lead in Europe and the world. It’s clear we cannot rely on Donald Trump – a man who has threatened to invade a NATO ally – to secure our continent. Strengthening ties of diplomacy and security with the EU is urgent.

We must repair the trading relationship with our neighbours that was so badly ruined under the Conservatives. Their deal has been an utter disaster for our country – for farmers, fishers and small businesses – caught up in red tape.

So far the Labour Government has failed to show the urgency and ambition needed to fix our relationship with Europe. Ministers must be in a parallel universe if they think we can grow the economy without boosting trade with our nearest neighbours.

A new UK-EU customs union deal will unlock growth, demonstrate British leadership and give us the best possible hand to play against President Trump.

NHS 2025 mandate: lack of ambition “falls so far short of the mark”

Responding to the Government’s 2025 mandate to NHS England, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

This should have been a line in the sand for our NHS. The normalisation of patients dying in corridors and people waiting endlessly for desperately needed care must end.

The previous Conservative Government’s shameful neglect brought us to this point but it is so disappointing to see this latest mandate from the Labour Government fall so far short of the mark.

There is no mention of the crisis in maternity or giving patients a legal right to see their GP within a week, as the Liberal Democrats have been calling for for years now.

It appears the Government has accepted a managed decline of our NHS, not rebuilding it to be the envy of the world as it once was. It is only patients who will bear the brunt of the Government’s refusal to step up properly.

Nearly 6,000 crimes still going unsolved every day

The Liberal Democrats are renewing calls for the government to implement proper community policing as new statistics reveal the extent of unsolved crime in the year ending September 2024.

The figures were revealed by the Home Office’s own statistics on crime outcomes, released earlier this morning.

2,136,252 crimes went unsolved across England and Wales in the year ending September 2024 – equivalent to 5,852 crimes going unsolved every day. This accounted for nearly 40% of all crimes recorded that year.

Meanwhile, just 363,843 crimes resulted in a suspect being charged or summonsed – accounting for less than 7% of all cases.

The number of unsolved crimes have remained consistently high for a number of years, with 2,183,237 crimes going unsolved in the year ending September 2023.

The figures also revealed that shoplifting offences rose by 23% to a whopping 492,914 offences, this is compared with the previous year (402,220 offences), and is the highest figure since current police recording practices began for the year ending March 2003.

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the previous Conservative Government for the figures, arguing that years of ineffective resourcing have left local police forces overstretched, underresourced and unable to focus on solving neighbourhood crime.

It comes one week after it was revealed that Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) numbers across England and Wales had been slashed by a further 3% in the last year.

The party is calling for a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and focused on solving the crimes that impact local communities the most.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Home Affairs Lisa Smart MP said:

Thousands of victims are being left without the justice they deserve every single day. The government promised to fix this – but these figures suggest the hard work has barely begun.

The former Conservative government destroyed neighbourhood policing and left our communities to pay the price.

The government must urgently deliver the change they have promised. Liberal Democrats will keep pushing for a return to proper community policing, keeping our neighbourhoods safe and reducing crime with more bobbies out on the beat.

£56m lost to online shopping fraud up 20% compared to last year

A Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats has revealed the shocking extent of online shopping fraud in the UK, it comes as Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey is due to highlight the issue in the South West today.

In the 2023/24 financial year, a whopping 68,082 cases of online shopping fraud were reported across the UK – adding up to more than £56 million in losses.

This is a 20% increase from online shopping fraud losses in the previous financial year, which stood at less than £47 million. In 2023/24, each victim lost an average of £827 – up 18% from average losses of £700 in 2022/23.

On average, more than £154,000 was lost to online shopping fraud in 2023/24 every single day. Nearly £9 million of these losses were recorded by the Metropolitan Police, while nearly £7 million in losses couldn’t be attributed to a single police force.

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the previous Conservative Government for these figures, arguing that they failed to adapt to the evolving nature of fraud which led to an increase in online scams over recent years. The party is now calling on the government to bring forward a new plan to tackle fraud, including the creation of an Online Crime Agency to coordinate work across the country on stopping online fraud.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:

Criminals are preying on vulnerable people with frauds and scams online on an industrial scale. Yet the last Conservative Government sat on its hands and let these fraudsters get away with it.

People have lost eye-watering amounts of money to online fraudsters and we urgently need real action to stop them.

Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to set up a new Online Crime Agency to tackle fraud, bring these vile criminals to justice, and free up police time to focus on keeping our communities safe.

Welsh Water price rise – customers paying the price for Government incompetence

Responding to the news that Dwr Cymru is to raise its prices by 27% in the next year and 42% by 2029-30, Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick said:

Welsh customers are paying the price for Government incompetence.

Under the last Conservative UK Government and current Welsh Labour Government in Cardiff Bay, Dwr Cymru was able to get away with minimal oversight.

They spent years paying out excessive executive bonuses despite being a ‘non-profit’ and having one of the worst environmental records in the country.

Welsh customers will now have the highest water bills in the UK, despite having some of the lowest incomes, it’s an absolute disgrace.

Cole-Hamilton highlights SNP failure on fuel poverty

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament during this afternoon’s session of First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

It is because of the Liberal Democrats that the Scottish Budget now includes:

• A new Belford Hospital in Fort William
• A replacement eye pavilion for Edinburgh
• Support services for babies born addicted to drugs
• Investment to make it easier for you to see your GP or an NHS dentist
• Long Covid care pathways
• Backing for hospices
• New skilled pipelines for care and offshore wind
• Business rates relief for hospitality
• More affordable homes
• A better future for young people at Corseford College
• The right for family carers to earn more
• More money for councils, for ferries and for social care.

Our priorities will now be backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of government investment. Liberal Democrats acting responsibly, setting aside differences, getting things done.

Presiding Officer, we also fought for a winter fuel payment for Scotland’s pensioners. And it’s happening.

That matters because this week we learned that a third of households are in fuel poverty.

So can I ask the First Minister, after 18 years of SNP Government, why are so many people still freezing in cold homes?