Post by zenfootball2 on Aug 12, 2022 16:32:58 GMT 1
One of the most damning indictments is that not a single new reservoir has been built since 1992. Just as our energy bills have increased due to the failure to invest in gas storage, the lack of investment in water storage is now coming home to roost.
The bitter irony is that water privatisation was meant to deliver a new era of infrastructure funding as private firms raised cash from the market. Yet one jaw-dropping study found that all the £123bn of capital spending over the past 30 years has been financed by customers’ bills, while borrowing was used instead to fund nearly half that – £57bn – in shareholder dividends.
The figures get worse. From 2010 to 2020, the privatised companies paid out £13.4bn in dividends, while directors’ pay rocketed. The highest paid CEOs were at Severn Trent, with a salary package of £2.4m, and United Utilities, with a salary package of £2.3m.
Meanwhile, bills for customers – which have doubled over the past 15 years – are set to go up again, adding to the already dire cost of living crisis felt by many.
And what are people getting in return for their money? Well, leaky pipes mean that three billion litres of water is lost every single day, a staggering figure that puts into perspective the private firms’ hosepipe bans and their “laughable” advice like using a damp towel to cool off instead of taking a shower.
Another egregious failure has been the pumping of raw sewage into our rivers and coastal waters, which happened more than 400,000 times last year, with widespread illegal discharges from treatment plants.
The Commons Environmental Audit Committee found that only 14 per cent of English rivers are classed as healthy, with many suffering a “chemical cocktail” of sewage, agricultural waste, and plastic pollution.
What makes the failed English experiment all the more obvious is the contrast with Scotland, where water privatisation never happened. Analysis from the University of Greenwich found that Scottish Water has invested nearly 35 per cent more per household in infrastructure since 2002 than the privatised English equivalents. Moreover, its bills are 14 per cent lower and its boss earns a fraction of the fat-cat pay south of the border.
Paul Waugh - The 'i'.
Corbyn was slaughtered in the press when he made this as part of his pledge before the election, just one smal snapshot for how things could have been different EDF the french state owned energy provider was forced by the french goverment to limit energy rises to 4 % in february EDF increased there bills by 54%
www.policyforum.labour.org.uk/uploads/editor/files/What_Labour_Stands_For.pdf
7. PUT THE PUBLIC BACK INTO
OUR ECONOMY
We will rebuild public services and expand
democratic participation, put the public
back into our economy, give people a real
say in their local communities with increased
local and regional democracy. We will act to
‘insource’ our public and local council services,
increase access to leisure, arts and sports
across the country, and expand our publiclycontrolled bus network. We will bring our
railways into public ownership and extend
democratic social control over our energy.