Water water everywhere

I was listening to this topic all day yesterday on my little 420 trip to Scotland and back.

It was quite depressing how little research had been done.

Under nationalisation we under-invested for so long that when the sewerage system requires £600 billion to make it right!! Under privitisation we invest more every year than anybody else in Europe, dead rivers came back to life, leaks are down by 30%, are beaches are cleaner and the drinking water is excellent.

It is the same old problem with UK public. We want excellent public services, but we want somebody else to pay for it. This myth that renationalisation will make it all ok again is fucking hilarous. Please point to when it was ok under nationalisation? Can we have some grown ups in power please. Work out what the problem, be honest with the public, and offer an honest solution.

You miss the obvious. The public were not asked to pay more when water was in public ownership, But they were when it was privatised and they didn't have a choice. 

So saying they want someone else to pay for it is meaningless. 

Well you’ve changed tack you were telling us how marvellous privatisation was.

Do none of you selfish bastards think of us shareholders?

That foie gras doesn't pay for itself you know.

Who is going to pay for the investment if not the customers? - a grant from the EU perhaps?

The customers could have paid for the investment without the privatisation. 

IMO no essential commodity should be privatised unless you can also build in the choice bought by competition.

Labour didnt act in any different way to the Tories when they were in power - it's rather sweet that you think they have suddenly improved. 

If you think that Thatcher inherited a well funded and modern water system from Labour the day she walked though the door in 1979 and spent the next 10 years running it down so that they could privatise it then your grip on history is somewhat lacking.

Bit of history for you.



In the late 1960s and early 1970s the continued problems with planning of
water resources and forecasts of future demands prompted a more far
reaching restructuring of the industry. The Water Act 1973 established 10
new regional water authorities that would manage water resources and the
supply of water and sewerage services on a fully integrated basis.

The Water Act 1973 required the regional water authorities to operate on a
cost recovery basis, with capital to meet investment requirements raised by
borrowing from central government and revenue from services provided.
Central government set financial constraints and performance aims for each
authority.

In retrospect, the tight fiscal controls applied by central government in the
1970s and 1980s, due, largely, to instability in the wider economy and the
high levels of debt inherited by the water authorities, led to insufficient
expenditure to meet the capital maintenance and investment requirements of
the industry. The resulting problems which were particularly evident in the
1980s, became progressively more unacceptable to the public given their
heightened environmental awareness and increasingly stringent European
legislation.

In response, the government introduced some changes through the Water Act
1983. This led to some constitutional changes, reduced the role of local
government in decision making and gave the authorities scope to access the
private capital markets.

In practice these changes failed to deliver the requirements for the necessary
capital investment programme and a significant number of pollution incidents
continued to occur. With the government unwilling to provide any additional
public finance to meet the demand for capital investment, and with the
privatisation of other public services underway, government concluded that
privatisation of the industry was a viable outcome.