Ok, and how would that translate to cheaper bills? I keep hearing this from Labour but they never tell us what they would actually do to rail ticket prices and utility bills should these companies be brought under public control.
Nationalise the North Sea oil and gas fields while we’re at it.
Depends what they mean by energy companies.
Energy suppliers? They are already nationalising them after they fail like bulb energy, with many others on the rocks, the margins are tiny due to dozens of competitors and bill switching websites moving people to the lowest priced option en masse. When bulb collapsed they have been struggling to find anyone who is willing to take on their millions of customers, hardly a sign there are massive profits to be had on the difference between the price cap and wholesale prices.
Upstream extraction companies drilling oil/gas out of the ground? The North Sea has been in decline, even previously big companies investing there now get large amounts of their volumes from Africa/South America/Middle East,etc.
If they intend to pay a fair price for the company, they don’t even need any nationalisation act, the shares are available for anyone to buy on the stock market. But the government buying £100bn of energy shares generating £6bn a year of profits, won’t generate any more income than buying £100bn of google, mcdonalds, or any other company generating similar returns.
The idea of a national wealth fund is one that has worked for some countries, but if you go down that route I wouldn’t put all the money into energy, as what happens when you have a energy bust period where prices are down to $15/barrel of oil similar to a few years ago.
If they intend to nationalise without fair compensation, they may gain control of some companies, but it will hurt investment in the UK, and companies will try to move their companies/resources/technology overseas out of fear that the UK government has shown it may nationalise companies without being fairly compensated like China or something. This will also take all the income tax paying jobs with it too.
How long does everyone give it before Starmer purges her from the Labour Party?
6 comments
[deleted]
Ok, and how would that translate to cheaper bills? I keep hearing this from Labour but they never tell us what they would actually do to rail ticket prices and utility bills should these companies be brought under public control.
Nationalise the North Sea oil and gas fields while we’re at it.
Depends what they mean by energy companies.
Energy suppliers? They are already nationalising them after they fail like bulb energy, with many others on the rocks, the margins are tiny due to dozens of competitors and bill switching websites moving people to the lowest priced option en masse. When bulb collapsed they have been struggling to find anyone who is willing to take on their millions of customers, hardly a sign there are massive profits to be had on the difference between the price cap and wholesale prices.
Upstream extraction companies drilling oil/gas out of the ground? The North Sea has been in decline, even previously big companies investing there now get large amounts of their volumes from Africa/South America/Middle East,etc.
If they intend to pay a fair price for the company, they don’t even need any nationalisation act, the shares are available for anyone to buy on the stock market. But the government buying £100bn of energy shares generating £6bn a year of profits, won’t generate any more income than buying £100bn of google, mcdonalds, or any other company generating similar returns.
The idea of a national wealth fund is one that has worked for some countries, but if you go down that route I wouldn’t put all the money into energy, as what happens when you have a energy bust period where prices are down to $15/barrel of oil similar to a few years ago.
If they intend to nationalise without fair compensation, they may gain control of some companies, but it will hurt investment in the UK, and companies will try to move their companies/resources/technology overseas out of fear that the UK government has shown it may nationalise companies without being fairly compensated like China or something. This will also take all the income tax paying jobs with it too.
How long does everyone give it before Starmer purges her from the Labour Party?
Sign the petition
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/608056