Posts: 11,898
Threads: 277
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
52
05-18-2023, 02:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-18-2023, 02:49 PM by Tom Joad.)
Ruth Kelly (Chair of Water UK), has been on the charm offensive today. Apologising for the 175 million hours the water companies spent dumping untreated sewage into our rivers and streams. That's a mere 825 spills of untreated sewage each day but hey ho, the system is old apparently. She also said the water companies will be announcing a 10 Billion investment into their business to ensure it doesn't happen again. Except, bills will have to rise to pay for this. No mention of the shareholder dividends of 2 Billion a year paid on average over each of the last 30 years. Nor any mention of the huge executive salaries paid, or that 5 (out of 9) water company bosses have other well paid jobs on the boards of other companies despite promising everyone they are doing everything they can to prevent more pollution. No mention either of the fact so much money has been taken out of the companies in salaries and dividends that they are mostly all up to their eyes in debt.
What can be garnered from this is; 1/ The service we have all been paying for and not getting, might resume at some point in the future, if 2/ We all pay for it again, and some more.
It's high time some of these enemies of both planet and people were thrown in jail and made to recompense the population.
Posts: 11,754
Threads: 233
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
33
And there is the problem with such services being run by private enterprise, they DON'T invest the profits, they DON'T give a better service and they AREN'T more efficent.
Posts: 9,613
Threads: 364
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
19
I was until last year very much pro-privatisation of water, especially weary of weak regulation from government and a lack of intent into addressing public sector corruption in the old public water operators.
Having looked into it and the complete failure of the private sector to invest into water infrastructure (need just look at the collapse in the number of reservoirs built pre-91 vs post-91), weak regulation not being fixed in any way by privatisation (I refer back to the lack of infrastructure built as well as the recent surge in raw sewage discharge with no attempt to stem the issue) and the complete piss take of giving out dividends instead of building the infrastructure required on top of the fact that even with privatised water the government still refuses to hold anyone to account I've now changed my mind and am pro-nationalisation. Obviously being a natural monopoly I'm not concerned with it contradicting my political beliefs, this is purely pragmatic.
I also found out that one of the reasons why I was pro-privatisation was because Thatcher's government conspired to bury contamination issues with the South West water board to prevent the privatisation plan from going awry.
The complete failures of Major's, Blair's, Brown's, the Coalition, Cameron's, May's, Johnson's, the Lettuce's and now Sunak's governments in addressing infrastructure issues in the water industry has led me to believe there isn't capacity for the private sector to address the shortfall, the same with nuclear energy and clean heating projects, so I see no alternative. I now wait for my water bills to go up while dividends are still paid out just so I can have the luxury of letting my dog swim in the River Sowe and River Avon as she did 5 years ago without swimming in human shite.
Posts: 11,918
Threads: 469
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
76
I put up a thread last year or possibly the year before about this (first scoop Derek). As Birdie said the water companies have prioritised shareholders rather than the customer/user. They haven’t invested properly, they have factored in the fines they get and are now asking us to pay more for the job they haven’t been doing. The Tory Party of course sit on their hands because fundamentally they believe the drivel about public sector bad, private sector good and they probably own a few shares as well.
If you prioritise profit rather than people and the environment then you end up shit creek literally.
Btw I know someone who will be along later to defend the shit show again
Posts: 6,365
Threads: 201
Joined: Feb 2020
Reputation:
11
Ruth Kelly. Fucking Hell.
That's a blast from the past. Labour Education Secretary sending her kids to private school, Coutts mortgage on a £2 million West London pad. Ah, the Blair years...
Posts: 4,926
Threads: 397
Joined: Oct 2022
Reputation:
16
We should let the market decide.
Would rather talk to ChatGPT
Posts: 4,971
Threads: 236
Joined: Aug 2022
Reputation:
16
05-20-2023, 08:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-20-2023, 09:20 AM by CaptainFantastico.)
Someone could have been killed
