Shareholder investment in the top ten privatised UK water and sewage companies has decreased by £5.5bn since privatisation. while dividend payments have increased to £72.8bn according to a new analysis by the University of Greenwich.
"Britain’s debt-laden water utilities are being encouraged by the regulator Ofwat to set up new privately financed companies to deliver billions of pounds worth of critical infrastructure such as reservoirs, treatment works and pipelines, which will be paid for through customer bills"
Outrageous. Nationalise them without compensation and abolish Ofwat, which is totally compromised.
"More than anything else, Portsmouth International Port offers a living, breathing argument for public ownership. Not only does it work – it thrives. The port’s cruise and ferry terminal, which opened in 2011, uses thermal energy from seawater to heat and cool the building – using only 20% of the energy one would expect from a traditional system."
Aaron Bastani on how one councillor's vote saved Portsmouth Port from #privatisation.
Tori Whanau's column in this weekend's Sunday Star-Times talked about introducing water meters and charging households for water.
Have we learned nothing from the privatisation of the publicly-funded electricity network? Which has led to households facing massive price hikes since the 1990s - a contributor to the rising cost of living - while effectively subsidising commercial users who can get power much cheaper on the spot market.
This is what happens when we don't have a progressive tax system that allows governments - local and central - to maintain public infrastructure without running huge budget deficits, and increasing public debt.
I don't but one of our sons works for the NHS in Manchester.
Meanwhile Wes Streeting has taken £175,000 from donors with links to private health firms since January 2023. Labour will come for the SNHS given half a chance.
There may be no national policy of renationalising the railways, but that's where we're headed; by this year around 40% of passenger rail-KMs were being managed by the state.
This would be so much better if it were a clear & well managed policy, not the political result of fire-fighting as subsidy-hungry operators still fail to provide an acceptable service.
Like other privatisations, its time to conclude there are some 'natural monopolies' that should be state-run!
This is the classic scam. Privatise an essential service. Load it with masses of debt, while investing the minimum it can get away with. Pay shareholders as much as it can get away with. When it collapses, walk away so the state has to pick up the pieces until it becomes viable again. Rinse and repeat.
The shareholders of the privatised UK water companies are laughing in our faces, while OfWat and the Environment Agency, many of whose staff come from the water companies, sit on their hands.
"Analysis of the latest data shows that more than 2,000 overflows owned by a number of companies are discharging raw sewage into rivers and seas at a scale that should spark an immediate investigation into illegal breaches of permit conditions"