Emeritus Prof Christopher MayMay 20, 2023

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!

Show threadWTLMay 20, 2023
@ChrisMayLA6 @CheRosach Public utilities should be publicly owned and operated, period.
Show threadGeofCoxMay 21, 2023

@WTL @ChrisMayLA6 @CheRosach

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.

Show threadToken Sane PersonMay 21, 2023

@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

Token Sane Person (@[email protected])

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.

mastodon.me.uk
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher MayMay 21, 2023

@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!

Show threadJames EvansMay 21, 2023
@ChrisMayLA6 @tokensane @GeofCox @WTL @CheRosach Loose regulation of a monopoly supplier seems to be the root cause of the issue. Rewarding shareholders for providing capital is one thing, but allowing shareholder rewards to be funded through borrowing rather than from profits earned by that capital (especially if infrastructure expenditure is insufficient to maintain quality) seems utterly indefensible
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher MayMay 21, 2023

@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

Show threadCheRosachMay 21, 2023
@ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @tokensane @GeofCox @WTL to my mind the overarching issue is that the public water supply should be publicly owned. There is no market, there is no competition, and the water companies are private geographical monopolies exploiting consumers who have no choice
Show threadMatt GrahamMay 22, 2023
@CheRosach @ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @tokensane @GeofCox @WTL
There has been a lack of management of the private providers by the public (Govt.).
However a service is provided there must be regulation of the performance of the service provider.
Public or private provision should be subject to the same standards, some of which will be stated in law and others in contract details.
Show threadGeofCox

@weematt @CheRosach @ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @tokensane @WTL

I think the peak of private water company investment in the UK was in the 90s - in response to new EU regulations!

But what's the point of the private company + regulator model? What's really needed for natural monopolies, especially those crucial to public health like water and energy - as @CheRosach and others have said - and indeed where national networking is essential, like transport - is public ownership and a thoroughgoing public service ethos. There is a plethora of evidence from around the world that it simply works better.

In France 57% of the economy is in the public sector, and over another 10% in other forms of social ownership, eg. co-ops - and the 'capitalist' less-than-a-third that remains is far more state regulated than the UK. Indeed, the world's most successful economies - Norway springs to mind - do tend to have high levels of public ownership and state intervention.

The UK neoliberal media have been saying for years - decades - that the French - indeed 'the European Social Model' - had to lead to decline - stories that mysteriously disappeared when it became obvious that it was the UK, with its privatised infrastructure, that was actually getting in a hell of a mess.

May 22, 2023 at 8:20amWeb
Show threadDanMay 22, 2023
@GeofCox @weematt @CheRosach @ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @tokensane @WTL and if you really want to privatise water supply do it on the same model as the electricity companies with a (nationalised in this case) DNO and private suppliers who use this network
Show threadMatt GrahamMay 23, 2023
@GeofCox @CheRosach @ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @tokensane @WTL
We should think of a vital need like water as a supply chain that needs constant scrutiny and management of our suppliers. We need to recognise that at some point in the supply chain a supplier may be a private operator even in a nationalised entity. Public or private supply needs vigilant public control.
Show threadToken Sane PersonMay 23, 2023
@weematt @GeofCox @CheRosach @ChrisMayLA6 @Myryama @WTL
Vigilance is the problem. Any organisation will do a good job if it is being watched. But as long as we have water in the taps and no sewage in the streets water is boring, so nobody watches.