Regardless of what everyone thinks, the real situation on the ground is that companies like Thames Water have been siphoning off profits rather than using them to keep the infrastructure up to date/repaired.
When I moved in to where I am now in London (early 2020, whew), TW were already digging the road up literally every 2-6 weeks, as they'd fix a water leak, then a new leak would spring up down the road (because the newly repaired point was strong enough that other weaker points became exposed) and so on and so forth when what they really need to do is RIP ALL THE OLD PIPES OUT AND PUT NEW ONES IN.
The way that road repair seems to be done in the UK is that potholes are ignored until the road is full of them, then the entire road gets resurfaced. My road was resurfaced during this time, it was beautifully flat and new...and then FUCKING THAMES WATER CAME AND DUG IT UP TO FIX THEIR LEAKS. Newly surfaced road, now scarred with dozens and dozens of ugly patches where TW has not done their fucking job.
And now, apparently all of this obvious shit is coming to light and people are increasingly aware that water rates are bound to go up as TW finds a way to pay for all the pipes that are completely fucked because they haven't been doing their job this whole time.
What an absolute disgrace. As a Kiwi who's living here, the worst part of the UK is both sides of the useless government and the apathetic population here who doesn't outright demand more from it; I wish they were more like the French.