So… It turns out private firms *aren’t* more efficient than nationalised infrastructure? Shocker.
And please, no more bailing out these firms with public money.
> Customers pay on average 20% of their bill towards servicing debt and rewarding shareholders, says CMA
Privatisation system working as intended I see- privatise the profits, socialise the losses.
Coming soon to your newsfeed:
> Breaking news: “New tighter financial and infrastructure investment regulations for water companies introduced – debt can’t be used to pay dividends.”
A week later:
> Breaking news: “Water companies declare bankruptcy – government bail out costs tax payer £120Bn.”
A month later:
> Breaking news: “Government has assumed caretaker role of failed water companies. No intention to nationalise. Actively looking for a new private company to buy. Estimated cost to tax payers may be only £20Bn.”
When water was privatised these companies were debt free, since then they have taken on £54bn in debt and pay big dividends out of that debt, to the tune of £2.1bn per year.
The debt, and its interest, is passed on to their customers.
That common refrain of ‘privatise the profits, socialise the losses’ seems rather apt.
Honestly today news has been:
– billions in covid fraud
– UK largest online/mobile casino market – and the damage to people that has caused
-6 billion increase in the price of food
and thats just 3 articles!
When do we all collectivley reset how our country is being run because it is not fit for purpose anymore! our country is being sold out from under us, there will be nothing left soon but all people care about is bullshit that doesn’t even matter!
Wonder what positive news we will have tomorrow….
I don’t ever understand why anyone thinks privatisation of one company into say 6 when these companies are unable to compete directly is going to achieve any efficiency gains.
At minimum you’d expect each company to lose efficiency by needing 6 head offices in place of 1.
Like efficiency isn’t gained by changing ownership alone, arguably it’s worse when owned by private individuals because of shareholder pressure needing immediate payout over longterm efficiency.
Surprised the people who work for OFWAT can eat, being so collectively and completely toothless.
Thatcher’s policies were such a disaster for this country. We’ve sold all our family silver to foreign corporations and haven’t got anything to show for it.
*sigh*. The taxpayer is going to end up footing this bill aren’t we?
So the water companies were privatised, they’re in forign hands, they’re paying out billions in dividends, running up masses of debt, dumping sewage into our rivers.
I suggest the only appropriate course of action it to immediately nationalise them without reperations to the current owners, but leave the current owners saddled with the debt. That seems like the fairest and best decision for Britain.
And strangely water companies have paid out the same in dividends since privatisation:
So basically they have loaded up the companies with debt to pay out shit loads to share holders!
That’s just fucking corrupt.
Shout out for Dŵr Cymru who shouldn’t be lumped in with the other feckless robbing shysters.
This seems like a pretext to doing what the energy firms were doing which is basically to get public money to avoid becoming so in debt that they go bust.
Since we started the Precedent of giving public money to energy firms to avoid them going past, it’s likely we’re going to see much more of this behaviour from critical businesses that filling key public infrastructure roles .
in local government. We’ve seen it with public transport providers such as stagecoach.
Can’t believe we privatised water… fucking water! It is a necessity and comes from the same place, and we divided to try and allow people to make a profit on it. Nuts!
It cannot be stated strongly enough that this is the dividend of the Tory vote.
16 comments
So… It turns out private firms *aren’t* more efficient than nationalised infrastructure? Shocker.
And please, no more bailing out these firms with public money.
> Customers pay on average 20% of their bill towards servicing debt and rewarding shareholders, says CMA
Privatisation system working as intended I see- privatise the profits, socialise the losses.
Coming soon to your newsfeed:
> Breaking news: “New tighter financial and infrastructure investment regulations for water companies introduced – debt can’t be used to pay dividends.”
A week later:
> Breaking news: “Water companies declare bankruptcy – government bail out costs tax payer £120Bn.”
A month later:
> Breaking news: “Government has assumed caretaker role of failed water companies. No intention to nationalise. Actively looking for a new private company to buy. Estimated cost to tax payers may be only £20Bn.”
There’s a [link](https://old.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/z9ku96/water_firms_debts_since_privatisation_hit_54bn_as/) at the top of this article which is quite informative.
When water was privatised these companies were debt free, since then they have taken on £54bn in debt and pay big dividends out of that debt, to the tune of £2.1bn per year.
The debt, and its interest, is passed on to their customers.
That common refrain of ‘privatise the profits, socialise the losses’ seems rather apt.
Honestly today news has been:
– billions in covid fraud
– UK largest online/mobile casino market – and the damage to people that has caused
-6 billion increase in the price of food
and thats just 3 articles!
When do we all collectivley reset how our country is being run because it is not fit for purpose anymore! our country is being sold out from under us, there will be nothing left soon but all people care about is bullshit that doesn’t even matter!
Wonder what positive news we will have tomorrow….
I don’t ever understand why anyone thinks privatisation of one company into say 6 when these companies are unable to compete directly is going to achieve any efficiency gains.
At minimum you’d expect each company to lose efficiency by needing 6 head offices in place of 1.
Like efficiency isn’t gained by changing ownership alone, arguably it’s worse when owned by private individuals because of shareholder pressure needing immediate payout over longterm efficiency.
Surprised the people who work for OFWAT can eat, being so collectively and completely toothless.
Thatcher’s policies were such a disaster for this country. We’ve sold all our family silver to foreign corporations and haven’t got anything to show for it.
*sigh*. The taxpayer is going to end up footing this bill aren’t we?
So the water companies were privatised, they’re in forign hands, they’re paying out billions in dividends, running up masses of debt, dumping sewage into our rivers.
I suggest the only appropriate course of action it to immediately nationalise them without reperations to the current owners, but leave the current owners saddled with the debt. That seems like the fairest and best decision for Britain.
And strangely water companies have paid out the same in dividends since privatisation:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/01/england-privatised-water-firms-dividends-shareholders
So basically they have loaded up the companies with debt to pay out shit loads to share holders!
That’s just fucking corrupt.
Shout out for Dŵr Cymru who shouldn’t be lumped in with the other feckless robbing shysters.
This seems like a pretext to doing what the energy firms were doing which is basically to get public money to avoid becoming so in debt that they go bust.
Since we started the Precedent of giving public money to energy firms to avoid them going past, it’s likely we’re going to see much more of this behaviour from critical businesses that filling key public infrastructure roles .
in local government. We’ve seen it with public transport providers such as stagecoach.
Can’t believe we privatised water… fucking water! It is a necessity and comes from the same place, and we divided to try and allow people to make a profit on it. Nuts!
It cannot be stated strongly enough that this is the dividend of the Tory vote.