Thames Water

[SueEllen]

BBC News - Thames Water fined £122.7m in biggest ever penalty - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgeg5vy9q8eo

Interesting comments

[Paddy]

BBC News - Thames Water fined £122.7m in biggest ever penalty - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgeg5vy9q8eo

Interesting comments

The same should happen to all utilities. It’s OK to have private utilities if they behaved as they did in Victorian times ie, being a service to the community with a modest profit.

[ladymuck]

I don't have an issue with profit being made, as you need that to fund investment. I do have an issue with loading up a company with debt then extracting that as dividends and management bonuses.

[SueEllen]

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ut-rescue-deal

Thames Water preferred bidder KKR pulls out of rescue deal
Future of troubled supplier in doubt as US private equity group says it cannot proceed with acquiring £4bn stake

I wonder if the fine helped...

[Protagoras]

This is reported as "increasing the prospects of a temporary nationalisation"; what is clearly required is permanent nationalisation.

It has surely been demonstrated that private businesses providing essential services in monopoly cannot effectively be regulated. Provision of affordable water and sewerage is something a 'starter country' would sort out as a priority.

But of course, the WCs were underfunded by Govt in the decades up to privatisation ...

[quackhandle]

I don't have an issue with profit being made, as you need that to fund investment. I do have an issue with loading up a company with debt then extracting that as dividends and management bonuses.

This grinds my gears, can you imagine what HMRC would say if we did this with our Limited Cos?

Nah, f**K it, let me get that £100k business loan and I will award myself a £99,999 dividend for all my hard work.

qh

[Paddy]

This is reported as "increasing the prospects of a temporary nationalisation"; what is clearly required is permanent nationalisation.

It has surely been demonstrated that private businesses providing essential services in monopoly cannot effectively be regulated. Provision of affordable water and sewerage is something a 'starter country' would sort out as a priority.

But of course, the WCs were underfunded by Govt in the decades up to privatisation ...

The privatisation of water distribution where government does not have a controlling share has cause horrendous problems not just in the UK but also the remainder of the World. In parts of Africa, the take-over by private firm has made water affordable .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Not forgetting that utilities such as the Birmingham Corporation Water Department were stolen, without compensation, by Grocer Heath's 1973 Water Act.

Something else to be grateful to The Grocer for.

Then stolen for the 2nd time when privatised.

[Protagoras]

In my 'starter country' we would look to setup state-owned water, sewerage, justice, education, power, health, social welfare, public transport etc for the people as the very essence of why government should exist (and be entitled to taxes in return).

We have now evolved in this country to the extent that Govt levies large taxes but seems to have decided that providing basic affordable services to the people is not part of its responsibility. This is just so broken. I don't see anything to suggest that this will be fixed any time soon.

[TestMangler]

In my 'starter country' we would look to setup state-owned water, sewerage, justice, education, power, health, social welfare, public transport etc for the people as the very essence of why government should exist (and be entitled to taxes in return).

We have now evolved in this country to the extent that Govt levies large taxes but seems to have decided that providing basic affordable services to the people is not part of its responsibility. This is just so broken. I don't see anything to suggest that this will be fixed any time soon.

And this should be something to think about for all the c**ts that think Thatcher's time in power was a positive thing. Subsequent governments seeing the quick cash injection over long term stability just added to it. Try running your household that way. Would you sell your TV and rent one specifically for programs you want to watch ? Would you do away with your bog and pay your neighbor to use theirs every time you require it ? Sell your cooker and just buy takeaways ?

Selling essential services to the private sector (and then subsequently foreign governments) is madness in the extreme. Problem now is that the UK has **** all left to sell and we're lining the pockets of hedge funds and investment bankers to allow people water to drink. This country is f***ed.