This is a comprehensive demolition of water privatisation, and the same points are made in the book Private Island about the failure of the water and other privatised companies to invest in infrastructure, the massive profiteering by shareholders and senior management, And the book make exactly the same points about the better management of nationalised utility companies in Scotland and Wales, which although private, does not have shareholders, as well as how very few other companies privatised their utilities. Thatcher did it out of purely ideological reasons, and expected other countries to privatise theirs in turn. But they didn’t. Her advisors also thought they could export it to America and teach the Americans how to run capitalism, because in America many utility companies are owned by the state or local area. The complete and utter catastrophic failure and profiteering of the water companies is a direct result of Thatcher’s market capitalism, which the Conservatives, Starmer and Farage are desperate to prop up and tell us that ‘There Is No Alternative’.
Dear David,
It’s shocking. Last year, shareholders at England’s water companies took home an average £377 in dividends for EVERY hour they dumped sewage.
We’ve just launched a new interactive tool, seen in the Mirror, allowing England’s billpayers to see how much their area’s company has profited from pollution. Find out what’s happening in your area HERE.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, YOU own your water company and don’t see your bills padded by a shareholders’ surcharge. Even privatised Welsh Water doesn’t have shareholders, but it does pay out profits to private creditors.
Wherever you live, please use and share our new tool below to show why we have to stop and roll back privatisation: so clean water, not profit, comes first.
So many of our waterways are under threat. Why? Because our infrastructure desperately needs investment.
So why is England letting up to £1000 per hour of pollution slip out of our regional water companies to go into the pockets of the foreign governments and international wealth funds who own them?
Scottish Water, despite facing challenges that call for a more modern form of public ownership, has been able to invest 35% more than England’s water companies.
If that had happened here, England would have seen £28 BILLION more go into sewage and leak prevention.
Use our new tool to expose the failures of England’s privatised water companies and build the momentum for ALL public services to put people over profits.
This rip off has to end. We need water companies that don’t rip off households. We need water companies that INVEST the money we pay in bills in cleaning up our rivers and seas. 7 out of 10 people think water belongs in public ownership.
England is an international outlier — 90% of the world runs water in public ownership, including Scotland and many cities in France, including Paris.
As the privatised companies collapse under the weight of their own debt and greed — Thames Water’s shareholders are deserting the company as you read this — it’s time to ask WHY did we ever privatise water? And when will the government recognise that it’s beyond time to take it back?
Don’t let them take you for a mug. You’ve already paid your water bills! Don’t let them make you pay more while investors on far flung shores continue to get their return because they know what a reliable source of income you are. If we’re going to invest more in tackling sewage, that money should go directly into the service, not continue leaking out to shareholders.
Share our tool online to help everyone in your area understand the dangers of privatisation.
THANK YOU for standing up for public services for people not profit.
Cat, Johnbosco, Matthew, and John — the We Own It team’
Tags: Capitalism, International Wealth Funds, Margaret Thatcher, Northern Ireland, Open Britain, Paris, Public Utilities, Scottish Water, Senior Management, Sewage, Shareholders, Thames Water, Water Companies, Waterways
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