Yet more evidence that water companies should be back in public hands. What an indictment of failed regulation & oversight and the triumph of corporate greed 👇
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
For those of a particularly strong constitution I've annexed a link to the judgment. Thames Water's financial affairs are hellishly complex. The government has a plan for renationalisation called "Project Timber". I have my doubts that this current plan will give sufficient stability to Thames...
Not just for financial reasons.
In Holland water, gas and electricity networks are all publicly owned and it's apparently illegal to privatise any of them out of national security concerns.
Now which strategic genius came up with that idea!
You really couldn’t make this up. Having read the article, I couldn’t help but wonder how much money has passed into the hands of share holders over the years? No utilities should be held in the private sector, they should be owned and run by the government and in the interests of the public
Utterly disgraceful decision. We, the British taxpayers, are dumped into the trough of right-wing business and millionaires round the world, to keep our money flowing to them.
Judge “might have been tempted to refuse to sanction the plan” because of the eye-watering £800m to be spent on interest costs & advisers. He judged that Thames and its customers would not have to bear those costs, because creditors would have to accept losses.
I don't disagree but, genuine question - how much would it cost and how would you pay for the initial purchase and the upgrades which are desperately needed?
Paying thousands of freeholders and tenant management organisations to put in water butts, etc will be a lot of admin. But it would also scale better than large, pricey infrastructure projects, and it helps cut drought effects too.
There's a lot of systems thinking to be thought up and implemented.
Oh for pity's sake. It should be absolutely crystal clear by now, to even the dimmest of us, that the privatised model just DOESN'T BLOODY WORK. Let's just face facts and get on with taking it back into public ownership.
So what happens to the billions they paid out to shareholders that landed them, now probably us, with all this debt? This privatised company was run fraudulently by accumulating vast debts and paying the money as dividends to its shareholders..... mostly the executive i would suspect. Get it back!!!
This is unbelievable. Of all the utilities, water should definitely be the one back under public ownership as we have no means to shop around for a better provider. If it wasn't for the fact I have no other option, I would have been boycotting Thames Water years ago.
It's news to me that Thames Water hasn't collapsed already. I mean, the lack of action on burst water mains in London made me think that no one was responsible for them anymore.
30 years and infrastructure is still not replaced or rebuilt? The fact it's been proven the large amount of debt is due to some fancy money laundering/tax manoeuvres where dividends etc are paid from loans rather than physical income should be grounds for removing licence and nationalisation!
ALL money to enable the required service to the required standards to be delivered, including investment into infrastructure and costs associated with raising capital, MUST come from Thames Water’s owners.
NOT the customers.
The Govt MUST protect the interests of citizens.
It’s their job.
Comments
can anyone name any examples where this has happened
In Holland water, gas and electricity networks are all publicly owned and it's apparently illegal to privatise any of them out of national security concerns.
Now which strategic genius came up with that idea!
It must be state owned & operated, with any profits being used to improve the service.
It's not rocket science. It's common sense.🙄
Really?! Add that £3bn to our bills.
But London doesn't need upgrades; it needs maintenance, options to deal with stormwater locally, and retrofits to stop foulwater reaching rivers.
There's a lot of systems thinking to be thought up and implemented.
NOT the customers.
The Govt MUST protect the interests of citizens.
It’s their job.