The privatisation of #water firms has had a clear result:
1. to fund profits to #shareholders, investment was constrained;
2. low investment has led to the #watercrisis, #pollution & water losses through leaks;
3, (Finally) under-funding is to be rectified & funded via loans;
4. the ongoing costs of loans will be repaid by customers through higher bills.
The only thing the #investors have done is stolen our money, offering no actual benefits;
the #Tories' #kleptocapitalism in a nutshell!
The mess privatisation has made of the UK's water system is symptomatic of much of the general economic malaise in the UK now.
The biggest issue of all - the housing crisis - is also the direct result of the massive transfer of public assets into private hands initiated by Thatcherism (neoliberalisn).
Almost every aspect of the UK's broad spectrum under-performance compared with neighbouring countries - including the tragic disintegration of its welfare state - can be traced back to this transfer of wealth out of the public's hands.
What about the brexit factor? - that too, as far as its key leaders were concerned, was part of the same neoliberal project to 'free' capitalism from state (or superstate) control.
@GeofCox @WTL @ChrisMayLA6 @CheRosach
Actually privatisation has nothing to do with the state of the water industry: it's *always* been this bad!
https://mastodon.me.uk/@tokensane/110401280960480737
1/11 This is going to be my first long-form post. I don't know if this will go anywhere, but I want to get this off my chest. The UK has a problem with sewage in its seas and rivers. The Standard Model of this on the Left is that greedy privatised water companies have focused on paying shareholders rather than investing in infrastructure. Hence we are in a literal mess. This narrative is seriously incomplete, verging on wrong.
@tokensane @GeofCox @WTL @CheRosach
Fair enough, but I think we can all agree that provitisation, presented as the 'answer' to the previous problems, very much wasn't!
@Myryama @tokensane @GeofCox @WTL @CheRosach
Agreed, in this model, lax regulation is the key issue, but that would not be a mistake, bu rather a feature of how the #privatisation was intended to (further) enrich the rentier class
@ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @GeofCox @WTL @CheRosach
I always apply Hanlon's Razor: never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. Regulatory capture is a well known failure mode, made more likely because any effective regulator needs to hire people who understand the industry, and there is generally only one place to find them.
Telecoms had the same issue until OfTel was merged with other media regulators to form OfCom. Now we have vastly better telecoms. Reform OfWat!
@tokensane @Myryama @GeofCox @WTL @CheRosach
Hmmm... OfCom hasn't been os great on #broadband - inadequate push towards rural broadband by OfCOm on BT/OpenReach has led many rural communities (such as ours) to organise their own internet connectivity
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
WTL
GeofCox
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James Evans
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