United Utilities + flooding

[bollieboy]

Good article on the political reasons for privitisation and the subsequent failures since.

If you follow the argument to its logical conclusion it would be more beneficial to the country to nationalise the water companies paid for by the issuing of government bonds.

Scottish Water remains publically owned and does not have the sewage discharge issues that the privatised water companies do. In addition the average residential bill in Scotland is 7 % lower than those in England and Wales.

Thames Water is nearly 9 % government owned ...... unfortunately it is the Chinese government that owns those shares.

I worked on the privatisation of England’s water in 1989. It was an organised rip-off | Jonathan Portes

Taxpayers lost out, and consumers have paid through the nose ever since. This failed regime is long past its sell-by date, says economist Jonathan Portes

www.theguardian.com

 

[Lost Seasider]

Scottish Water remains publically owned and does not have the sewage discharge issues that the privatised water companies do. In addition the average residential bill in Scotland is 7 % lower than those in England and Wales.

No, they have far worse sewage discharge issues: https://theferret.scot/scotland-behind-england-sewage-leaks/

They do have one good thing going for them though, they're benchmarked against the performance of England's water companies.

 

[bollieboy]

No, they have far worse sewage discharge issues: https://theferret.scot/scotland-behind-england-sewage-leaks/

They do have one good thing going for them though, they're benchmarked against the performance of England's water companies.

Untrue. They do not have far worse sewage discharge issues.

How Scotland's water compares with England as sewage spills spark disgust down south

How Scotland's water compares with England as sewage spills spark outrage and disgust south of the Border

www.thenational.scot

 

[Tangerinemoss]

The price is set by the regulator, as is the service quality, and the company is allowed to make a profit, otherwise there's no point in it being there in the first place.

True as far as it goes. However, as I'm sure slipped your memory, the regulator has got rather cross recently because the utilities have been charging as per the regulator, but not investing as per the regulator.

 

[Tangerinemoss]

I assume you mean nationalized, and the answer is it was a lot worse, many more pollution incidents, lots more interruptions, leaks etc.

The reason it was privatized in 1989, was that as a public body it was fighting for funds with other departments, such as the NHS, and education, and it was losing the fight, hence the massive backlog of investment in the sector.

I am old enough to remember. The first sentence is not true, the second is to an extent. Funding was an issue, but it was part of the ideology of the day to privatise anything that moved.

This was actually in the golden era of rivers being cleaner, fish returning to many rivers including the Thames, Trent and Irwell.

 

[tangerine_neil]

8 hours later. Still no sign of any help. Getting deeper. Canoe went past earlier.

 

[BigHandsOliverKahn]

Please provide a full list of all Brexit wins

That was the full list.