Water

It falls from the sky, it runs over land and into the sea. Its owned by no one, its needed by everyone.

Before 1989 the UK had lots of land, rivers and reservoirs. These were owned by UK taxpayers, assets worth £millions.

An asset that would only rise in value over time

But, we were told.....

Civil servants cant run water utilities efficiently.

The public sector is wasteful before they don't pursue profits.

Taxes and bills would have to rise to pay for the investment in infrastructure.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

The Private Sector.

What would it bring?

Efficiency.

Cost savings.

Investment in infrastructure.

Less flooding.

Reduced leaks.

Lower bills.

Its obvious, because they need to make a profit so they will run efficiently and invest in infrastructure to protect future profits.

Also:

There will be a Regulator who will monitor their performance.

It just makes sense.

What does the country need according to someone who has never worked in the water industry (me)?

We have a need for water to be collected in the wettest parts of the country and stored and moved to the driest parts of the country.

We need leaks to be fixed through investment in replacing and renewing

We need clean drinking water.

We need better storm control to avoid drains overflowing and sewage going into rivers.

And yes, bills shouldn't become excessive.

Fortunately, between 1989 and 2019 there will also be periods where borrowing money can be done at almost 0%, especially when you have assets like land which can be used as security so this task becomes even easier.

Also between 1989 and 2019 with temperatures increasing in the UK it will experience more rainfall so water shortages need never be an issue.

So Water Companies are privatised. What does this mean?

A private company is given, virtually free of charge, taxpayers land and wealth.

Initially those private companies may have some small individual British shareholders and that’s good for them. They get paid small dividends and have a feeling they can hold their local company to account.

Eventually those private companies have large foreign shareholders consisting of very wealthy groups such as sovereign wealth funds, or Canadian pension schemes. People who really don’t need to be richer.

What has been the result of 40 years of private sector efficiency?

Large borrowing has been taken out by the water companies who now sit on the edge of bankruptcy in an industry where you cannot fail.

Debts carry interest which becomes expensive for the water companies to pay, it has to be covered by customer bills.

Huge dividends are paid to wealthy shareholders from the loans obtained.

Bosses receive massive pay and bonuses for their brilliance in delivering what used to be done by awful civil servants.

No new reservoirs have been built in over 30 years.

Leaks remain high.

Reservoirs that normally refill from rivers can't because the sewage pollution within rivers is too great so we get water shortages.

People are being poisoned by unsafe drinking water.

We experience more flooding.

And of course virtually every river and inland waterway in the UK is polluted with sewage, because treating sewage reduces your profits, its cheaper to put it in the river and better to pay a dividend instead.

Now some water companies want to increase bills by nearly 100% to invest in infrastructure.

Maybe we should rethink this.