We need to start putting board members in prison for this along with banning any shareholder payouts. That will make them clean up their act pretty quickly
Toothache42 on
Can we just admit privatisation is a failure and put an end to it? The only people benefitting is the people in charge, ruining our country in the process
FewEstablishment2696 on
This is a clever article. It measures water in “hours” which is of course absolutely meaningless to normal people (like me). I have absolutely no idea if it is a lot or a little, but is clearly aimed to get people riled up.
Mintyxxx on
I just started watching Dirty Business last night, it does a great job of showing what is meant by underinvestment.
This really is the biggest scandal of our time, it dwarfs anything else. But you know, we can’t blame faceless foreign investors now can we, where would we put the flags?
Sea-Tomorrow2583 on
You’d think Westminster might have something to say about this
blahchopz on
Privatisation is not the issue, ministers chumming with their mates to eliminate control is the scandal and people need to be held accountable and follow due course. But unfortunately this model is rampant everywhere.
Additional_Pickle_59 on
Water just isn’t the business to be squeezing profits from.
You have literally 100% market capitalisation, pretty much every house is hooked up or receives it because it’s literally what we need to not die.
Skipping steps and fucking up our water is literally harming themselves too.
Once it’s all gone are they gonna drink money?
Silencer-1995 on
I wonder how many senior civil servants profited from this. Like governments come and go, but the people that advise them are there the whole time right? Just seems weird that issues like this go unnoticed for so long and I always get troubled when I see these senior people moving out of the service and into private consultancy firms for those they were responsible for keeping tabs on.
IAmCowGodMoo on
Is this one of those things where it’s the easiest thing to do instead of spending billions, and the reason the government won’t take control because it’s either this or they take control and spend billions trying to fix it or have to find alternative solutions and they rather a private company do it than them having to do it and get the bad press or spend billions to put in place correct procedures
I have no idea what I’m talking about just throwing out guesses because the obvious thing to do is for water to be nationalised but then why aren’t they doing it? Must be a reason behind it
RichKiernan on
OFWAT is the real problem here. The government had the perfect set up really, can set the rules, limit profit these companies can make and fine them heavily if the dont achieve but OFWAT only focused on price for the customer not actually maintaining and increasing the infrastructure as population increases
OFWAT tells the businesses what they are allowed to spend their money on and will knock back key projects like new treatment because it would mean increasing customer prices to deliver but what could have been done 15 years ago for £1 million will now cost 3x that and its already to late that infrastructure was needed 10 years ago. These things dont appear overnight and takes years of planning
-Stakka on
Yes that’s the way it is and will be.
Ofwat isn’t fit for purpose unless that purpose it inept spineless enabler?
gelliant_gutfright on
But remember, we can’t nationalise water because a report commissioned by water companies said it will be too expensive.
magrandan on
Nationalising the water companies should have been the first act this Labour government should have done when they came into power; instead they went after pensioners winter fuel instead.
I-left-and-came-back on
Im not defending what the water industry does, but whoever wrote the article failed their GCSE geography. Just because it hasn’t rained, doesn’t mean the ground water stops. Ground water ingress into the drainage system triggers a fuck load of CSOs to trigger.
Acceptable-Gur-5351 on
Starmer needs to continue on his current roll of actually doing popular things (for once) and just nationalise the every living f*** out of them tomorrow. Just do it, bank the political capital and we all move on with our lives.
15 Comments
We need to start putting board members in prison for this along with banning any shareholder payouts. That will make them clean up their act pretty quickly
Can we just admit privatisation is a failure and put an end to it? The only people benefitting is the people in charge, ruining our country in the process
This is a clever article. It measures water in “hours” which is of course absolutely meaningless to normal people (like me). I have absolutely no idea if it is a lot or a little, but is clearly aimed to get people riled up.
I just started watching Dirty Business last night, it does a great job of showing what is meant by underinvestment.
This really is the biggest scandal of our time, it dwarfs anything else. But you know, we can’t blame faceless foreign investors now can we, where would we put the flags?
You’d think Westminster might have something to say about this
Privatisation is not the issue, ministers chumming with their mates to eliminate control is the scandal and people need to be held accountable and follow due course. But unfortunately this model is rampant everywhere.
Water just isn’t the business to be squeezing profits from.
You have literally 100% market capitalisation, pretty much every house is hooked up or receives it because it’s literally what we need to not die.
Skipping steps and fucking up our water is literally harming themselves too.
Once it’s all gone are they gonna drink money?
I wonder how many senior civil servants profited from this. Like governments come and go, but the people that advise them are there the whole time right? Just seems weird that issues like this go unnoticed for so long and I always get troubled when I see these senior people moving out of the service and into private consultancy firms for those they were responsible for keeping tabs on.
Is this one of those things where it’s the easiest thing to do instead of spending billions, and the reason the government won’t take control because it’s either this or they take control and spend billions trying to fix it or have to find alternative solutions and they rather a private company do it than them having to do it and get the bad press or spend billions to put in place correct procedures
I have no idea what I’m talking about just throwing out guesses because the obvious thing to do is for water to be nationalised but then why aren’t they doing it? Must be a reason behind it
OFWAT is the real problem here. The government had the perfect set up really, can set the rules, limit profit these companies can make and fine them heavily if the dont achieve but OFWAT only focused on price for the customer not actually maintaining and increasing the infrastructure as population increases
OFWAT tells the businesses what they are allowed to spend their money on and will knock back key projects like new treatment because it would mean increasing customer prices to deliver but what could have been done 15 years ago for £1 million will now cost 3x that and its already to late that infrastructure was needed 10 years ago. These things dont appear overnight and takes years of planning
Yes that’s the way it is and will be.
Ofwat isn’t fit for purpose unless that purpose it inept spineless enabler?
But remember, we can’t nationalise water because a report commissioned by water companies said it will be too expensive.
Nationalising the water companies should have been the first act this Labour government should have done when they came into power; instead they went after pensioners winter fuel instead.
Im not defending what the water industry does, but whoever wrote the article failed their GCSE geography. Just because it hasn’t rained, doesn’t mean the ground water stops. Ground water ingress into the drainage system triggers a fuck load of CSOs to trigger.
Starmer needs to continue on his current roll of actually doing popular things (for once) and just nationalise the every living f*** out of them tomorrow. Just do it, bank the political capital and we all move on with our lives.