Water firms want bill rises to pay for repairs to leaks and spills

[i_ateallthepies]

Water firms want bill rises to deal with leaks and spills


Cheeky bas**rds.  What have they been doing with all the profits over the last 30 years?

[Iberian Red]

Water firms want bill rises to deal with leaks and spills


Cheeky bas**rds.  What have they been doing with all the profits over the last 30 years?

Pissing and shitting it down the drain.
Edit.
Literally,into rivers and the sea. They've been helped enormously by the government  in that respect tho.

[Filo]

Some leaks go months without repairs, stop ripping your customers off and lining shareholders pockets, another fine example of failed privatisation

[scawsby steve]

It's OK, Starmer will be PM soon, and then the water companies will be back in public hands.

Oh, wait a minute.

[normal rules]

Water firms want bill rises to deal with leaks and spills


Cheeky bas**rds.  What have they been doing with all the profits over the last 30 years?

same as those that supply gas, electric, petrol, diesel, lpg etc etc

[tommy toes]

Liked the Daily Mash headline on this.
'Give us £96million or we'll pump sh*t into your home'

[Sprotyrover]

I can’t get my head around them borrowing billions to pay their share holders a dividend! Me thinks that sort of behaviour is worthy of a 15 stint in Prison.

[albie]

The great water rip-off continues, with companies loaded with unsupportable debt to pay out to investors;
https://nitter.poast.org/nick_oldridge/status/1790855295033352677#m

Then UK water companies embrace PFI to deliver £14bn of infrastructure;
https://nitter.poast.org/heatpolicyrich/status/1791401877466214596#m
 
So customers are to be billed for any network maintenance, while the scam continues.
Both Tory parties think this is just good business practice!

[MachoMadness]

Meanwhile people in Devon are having to boil water because the tap water is full of parasites that give you the shits.

[ravenrover]

It's full of cow sh!t with parasites in it

[MachoMadness]

Tories do like to talk about getting our country back. Don't think people realised they meant back when we had no clean drinking water, cholera, and workhouses though.

[Not Now Kato]

Wasn't the whole idea of privatisation that there'd be more investment? Yet another lie the people of the UK bought.  Whatever happened to education in this country?

[BillyStubbsTears]

The great water rip-off continues, with companies loaded with unsupportable debt to pay out to investors;
https://nitter.poast.org/nick_oldridge/status/1790855295033352677#m

Then UK water companies embrace PFI to deliver £14bn of infrastructure;
https://nitter.poast.org/heatpolicyrich/status/1791401877466214596#m
 
So customers are to be billed for any network maintenance, while the scam continues.
Both Tory parties think this is just good business practice!

Here we go again. "Both Tory parties". The smug smart-arse attitude from the far-left that put the Tories in No10 in 2010, because Labour were no better, apparently.

Children playing at being grown up.

[albie]

Labour have said that they do not think public ownership of water is needed.
They are on the same page as the Tories on this.

Wake up, silly Billy.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/05/17/water-companies-labour-party/

If you can't see what is plain and in front of you, then you must be as dull as dogshit.

[SydneyRover]

If only there was a Harry Potter Party aye?

[drfchound]

How can a Party who wants to be in government abstain on such an important vote?

[tyke1962]

How can a Party who wants to be in government abstain on such an important vote?

Abstaining is agreement with the consensus without having the balls to say so .

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

[SydneyRover]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

[scawsby steve]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

I'll tell you what my preference would be; that the modern Labour Party would come clean and admit that they're no longer representatives of the working class; they're a liberalist, centrist party serving the interests of the metropolitan class of London and the South East.

[SydneyRover]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

I'll tell you what my preference would be; that the modern Labour Party would come clean and admit that they're no longer representatives of the working class; they're a liberalist, centrist party serving the interests of the metropolitan class of London and the South East.

Finally you get it, well done, now that you accept that no party in Britain left or right can win without the centre what will do with that knowledge?

[albie]

Lost me there, Sydney.

Why would anyone think that the public accounts should take on the debt of insolvent water companies?

That debt was built up deliberately by those companies, to the benefit of their shareholders.
The responsibility for that debt rests with the management and shareholders of those companies.

The solution is to transfer the assets and infrastructure development to a public authority, while leaving the residual debt at the door of those responsible.

One way would be to ensure that water company shareholder dividends would only be distributed if sewage discharge is reduced year on year to targeted levels.
These levels should challenging and set within a parliamentary period to reduce sewage discharge levels.

Instead of fines for non-compliance, which are just added to customer bills, require a share allocation from the offending company to the successor public body.

If the water company’s share price drops, then the government could buy the shares.
At 51% share transfer effective control is in public hands, and the separation of the public interest from the private debt can be completed.

[SydneyRover]

I was asking not instructing Albie, why haven't the masters of the financial universe (those in power right now) done something?

[albie]

Because they are bankrolled by those profiting from the scam, Syd.

This is why business interests look to have leverage with the donation of funds to political parties.
They are buying influence, and our corrupt system encourages it!

[scawsby steve]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

I'll tell you what my preference would be; that the modern Labour Party would come clean and admit that they're no longer representatives of the working class; they're a liberalist, centrist party serving the interests of the metropolitan class of London and the South East.

Finally you get it, well done, now that you accept that no party in Britain left or right can win without the centre what will do with that knowledge?

In answer to that question, Syd, I'm seriously looking at the manifesto of Count Binface.

[SydneyRover]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

I'll tell you what my preference would be; that the modern Labour Party would come clean and admit that they're no longer representatives of the working class; they're a liberalist, centrist party serving the interests of the metropolitan class of London and the South East.

Finally you get it, well done, now that you accept that no party in Britain left or right can win without the centre what will do with that knowledge?

In answer to that question, Syd, I'm seriously looking at the manifesto of Count Binface.

If that makes sense to you rather than getting involved and changing the voting system maybe you should stop moaning about labour.

[SydneyRover]

Because they are bankrolled by those profiting from the scam, Syd.

This is why business interests look to have leverage with the donation of funds to political parties.
They are buying influence, and our corrupt system encourages it!

You have just answered your own question, why expect labour, if they get in to instantly clean up the mess of 14+ years. The tories won't even accept nor admit the financial mess the books are in never mind clean up after themselves.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

Keep it private let the private sector find efficiencies the public sector can't and split the profits via a legalised gain share agreement with the public element pushed in to a government controlled fund to fund the more difficult infrastructure developments of the system.

[SydneyRover]

It's a fair point though, labour appears very critical of the positions then when asked if they'd change it largely say no.

I think they're going to struggle to keep the public on side if they don't make much by way of changes.

Wouldn't nationalising the whole lot be putting that huge debt with a massive backlog of maintenance and upgrades on the public purse, what would your preference be pud?

Keep it private let the private sector find efficiencies the public sector can't and split the profits via a legalised gain share agreement with the public element pushed in to a government controlled fund to fund the more difficult infrastructure developments of the system.

Thanks pud, but who is going to implement it, not the tories else they would have done something before now. And what happens in the meantime to all the shit going into the waterways, this is not an overnight fix, the sewage dumping was only discovered relatively recently. It will take years to upgrade all the plants. This is sheer corporate bas**rdry.

[albie]

Because they are bankrolled by those profiting from the scam, Syd.

This is why business interests look to have leverage with the donation of funds to political parties.
They are buying influence, and our corrupt system encourages it!

You have just answered your own question, why expect labour, if they get in to instantly clean up the mess of 14+ years. The tories won't even accept nor admit the financial mess the books are in never mind clean up after themselves.

You are completely missing the point, Syd.

Labour are courting the same business interests who would want to preserve the water industry exploitation scam.
From the point of view of those international hedge fund interests, the objective is to influence Labour to support the bankrupt water companies, and so prolong the cash transfer.

The fly in the ointment is the fact that Thames Water (and others) are on the brink of insolvency.
The question is what happens next, when one or more go under?