Water should be nationalised

Paddyann well said and every grain absolutely true! I cannot understand the pseudo class system in England either!?!the pity is that there's loads of young pseudos coming through the ranks too that think being conservative makes you "a cut above" above what? I ask?!

With the trend to hotter, drier Summers, maybe it's time to look at the feasibility of having Desalination Plants & National Grid style pipe network.

I posted this before. When the water companies were privatised the senior managers received vastly increased salaries and the workers hardly any wage increases.

It's a very very short step from hard right to facist. My dad's family ( and he aged 3!) Learnt that in 1934 in Berlin.they were upper class spoke high German and high society types too! Didn't stop them having to flee in what they could grab to come here to relatives in Manchester!!! Nobody is "safe" and political parties look after ...themselves first!

Grantanow

Of course water should be nationalized! We need a national strategy to ensure we have enough, that it can be piped across the country and that sewage is treated properly and not dumped untreated into rivers. The present companies are monopolies and cash cows for their directors and shareholders. They are not investing enough into stopping leaks and treating wastewater. Labour should plan to nationalize all the public utilities as soon as they are elected.

A "National Strategy" does not mean an industry has to be run by the government. Why would you think that it does?

The problem is we have no strategies and haven't for 12 years. That isn't going to be healthy for any country.

it should never have been privatised in the 1st place. But from a Tory point of view nobody makes a profit, thats why they won't nationalise it again. we need a change of gov't

Nationalised industries don’t always do so well though! I remember years ago when ‘jobs for the boys’(remember Lord Robens and Aberfan?) etc, low productivity and investment and rampant unionisation were the norm with many ‘public owned’ companies! And where did the ‘profits’ go? Not back into the public purse to improve the lot of the working man I’ll wager. Because apart from the ‘you’ve never had it so good’ years which appear somewhat mythical now, historically the working persons lot is and hasn’t been all that great in this country.

I live in Northern England I didn't vote tory I never have but loads of people must do its a joke im so worried about price hikes we sit in the dark watching TV. Im so scared and im trapped in an awful.job. I really hope things get better for everyone

Paddyann54
Sorry this is so long. I’m so very cross:-
Love the comment about voting Tory marking you a better person.
I’m in the SE of England just now and yes there are still those who think Tory’s are fantastic. We tax payers spent a fortune educating this voting population and it was money wasted. From what I’ve seen, most have difficulty assessing the situation.
The SE is a privileged place with plenty of opportunities for those willing to work. Ok it’s an expensive place to live with the class system being very very strong.
Like other UK places there are those who can’t or refuse to work. There’s plenty of work here but it’s a discriminatory area. Class is a huge barrier.
Sadly it’s a Tory area.
Water and utilities should never have been sold off to foreign investors.
There should be a compulsory purchase of these, returning them to the people.
I’m also thinking the skills we had may have gone. We allowed Thatcher to deskilled the workforce.
A miracle is needed to return our country to an acceptable level and I can’t and don’t blame those Scots wanting independence. We in England are damaging Wales, N Ireland and of course it’s criminal what they do to Scotland.
The Scottish leader is vibrant, knowledgeable and fights for HER people. She demonstrates what’s lacking in Westminster. Here we get fumbling Tory unkempt, lacking in morals and one who treats the electorate like idiots.
I’m appalled the country is lead by these hopeless individuals.
Sorry it’s so long but I needed to get this off my chest. Our local MP is of course Tory and very active but as good as the old chocolate tea pot. She’s always there for photo opportunities of course.

At least paddyann54....we in Wales don't have the biggest cretin of all....Ecoli STURGEON!! DIDNT you know All Governments have been greedy and corruption since time immormoria?

paddyanne54 keeping to the point ie water supply, you will be aware that Scotland is top of the league for the number of leaks in the supply to households. That's why the water charge is so high in comparison to England, Wales. A lot of utilities were sold off as governments didn't have funds to repair or maintain them. When utilities were government owned I can recall nothing but moans about how all those employed in them were skivvers getting paid to do nothing, much like how LA employees are viewed now! I lived in Scotland at that time and of course no one accepted the shares doled out to employees. What the UK needs is NS to redesign the geography of the UK to ensure everyone has enough rain to maintain a water supply. Sure that's within her many talents.After all she seems to think she was responsible for the gas, oil lying off shore and water in the clouds. Any new design could of course accommodate the removal of the need for ferries helping the island communities. Money saved again!

Water was privatised in 1989 by Thatcher. Since then the focus of the Water companies has been profit. Culminating in pouring sewerage into our waterways with impunity. OfWat and the Government has been useless in defending the consumers.
In 2018 Gove, the then Defra Minister called in all the English water companies to answer for their “ Devil may care “ leaks, shareholders before customers attitude, paying huge bonuses for senior staff, dangerous borrowing against assets, selling off reservoirs and land for building ( United Utilities who provide water to North West England sold off a reservoir in the Cheshire area, whilst almost simultaneously threatening the North West with a drought,)
Only Thames Water have built a de salination plant. The South East of England has water supplied by a company already heavily fined for their shenanigans. Google ‘ Windrush against Sewerage Pollution “
One of the policies that Corbyn put forward was to renationalise water. I approved of that idea, but not him.

The Government has allowed the NHS to be privatised. If I recall, 70+ GP surgeries have been sold off to an American company. ( started by Blair)
The state Veterinary Service laboratories have been reduced from 20 to six during the tenure if this government. So during the recent Zoonotic Viral outbreak the work had to be handled by private Labs. They saw the Government coming and made a absolute killing, We are seriously short of Vets, public Health personnel and Laboratories, GPs, doctors and nurses. Our government is recruiting from the third world, when their own Health Systems are in crisis. They have also relaxed the standards of spoken and written English.
Thousands of houses have been built on flood plains as the Government relaxed building regulations in favour of developers…….I could go on.

All utilities should be nationalised - one person should not have to pay more for a basic utility such as water, gas or electricity than another.

I would like to know why Anglian water think it's ok to advertise on tv. We have no choice of water suppliers where we live. Is this cost being added to our bills so they can claim tax relief. I wonder.

One of the most outrageous things about the present building law, is the fact that the production of a Flood Risk Assessment is in the hands of the developers, not a independent company.

Plus the awarding Council, has no statuary ( statuary means it’s a law);obligation to visit a development once it is finished, to check that it complies with its original planning application.

The builder builds the drains and the water companies have to connect them to their system whatever the state of their current infrastructure or the state of the now buried drains, This has led to builders , ‘ well you can imagine ‘ They know that once they leave a site, they have bugger all responsibility for it or the drains,
They also all got involved with the ‘ leasehold scandal’ leaving many people in a ‘ horrible’ situation, while this government looked on. It took them years to do anything.

Guess which political party receives donations from the Water Companies and the building trade,

Most water boards in Denmark are run locally, having a board of members that consists of any of the users of water in the area the board supplies who want to stand for election to the board and are voted onto the board at an AGM. The length of time members can sit on the board varies from place to place.

A water board is not necessarily run by the municipal authority of the area concerned. Householders and firms pay for the amount of water they use annually, plus service costs. The government subsidises these local water boards as well.

Heating plants are often run on the same basis.

You might want to consider this model, which is basically that of a co-operative society, before opting for nationalisation.

As far as I know the Dutch have a similar system of water boards, heating plants, and in addition elected boards to run their canals and nagivable rivers and yet another local board to manage sea dykes, pumping stations and polders.

* nannypiano * I will ask them as I am meeting with Anglian Water this month.

Yes, essential services should be privatised, especially with severe climate changes on the way. Matter of fairness and survival.

grandtanteJE65 I have Dutch friends and they think it’s hilarious the way in which we manage water in England. ( Wakes and Scotland being different);
Managing water in England encompasses, the Environment Agency, the local council and county council, Ofwat and its committees, the Water companies, independent Drainage boards,, there are too many fingers in the pie. They all have staff, equipment and their own way of operating. They resist efforts to cooperate,
Enforcement of the law is practically non existent,
The Water Management Law ( Google Sir Micheal Pitt review 2007 ); that came into force in 2010 had little statuary laws and the rest was advice suggesting good practice. It’s laughable.
Except it’s not, as it puts all the consumers of water ( us) behind every other consideration,

Ilovecheese

Yes, of course it should be nationalised, but that is against Tory ideology, so I don't suppose either of the main parties will do it.

Ooh! Ilovecheese that comment is subtle but absolutely brilliant! ?

t.co/6Z2mcl3BgT It says it all. Ugh

I’m not saying you’re wrong, Whitewavemark2, not at all, but I’ve heard that during the years when water was nationalised, there wasn’t anything like enough investment in often crumbling infrastructure - this came from dh, a civil engineer who for some years was involved in the water sector.

Of course leaks are still happening. At the moment we are affected by a major leak in the nearby main road - for nearly 2 weeks now there have been no buses anywhere near our house. Dh has spoken to the bloke in charge, as he often does - it’s a huge mains pipe, 80 years old, for which a spare section needs to be specially made, and the leak has undermined the road, so that has to be fixed, too. Altogether a huge job, in other words.

I count us lucky that our water supply has not been affected - dh was told that the work should be finished by tomorrow morning, so ?.

All essential utilities should be nationalised.

pce612

All essential utilities should be nationalised.

I don’t agree, I think not for profit companies are a good alternative, in that they protect income and make sure it is reinvested,

In the 1980s the Tories under Margaret Thatcher starved the then publicly owned water companies of cash and borrowing powers with which to upgrade the infrastructure and then, when they inevitably failed to meet required water quality and sewage disposal standards, sold them off in 1989 to private enterprise, relieving them of all debt and providing a hefty subsidy to boot. At that point England and Wales (which has since had its water company transferred to a form of community ownership as other comments have noted) was the only country in the world to have wholly privatised water and sewage disposal systems. Despite the advantageous financial situation the private companies inherited they have dismally failed to upgrade the infrastructure preferring to pay some £57billion to shareholders - almost half of what they collectively invested. As a result they have presided over wholesale discharge of sewage into our rivers and seas and worse, lied about it. Southern Water, my local company, was fined a record £90m in 2021 for the crime of discharging sewage thousands of times into the Solent and English Channel from 2010 to 2015. Despite this, the EA have judged them the worst polluters on 2021 - clearly nothing has changed. Water and sewage disposal systems are public goods and should not be operated for private profit so you’re right - water companies need to be taken into some form of community ownership and any surpluses reinvested in improving the infrastructure, not syphoned off as profits to private equity companies like Macquarie Asset Management which has recently taken over Southern Water having extracted profits from Thames Water and left them saddled with debt and little in the way of improved infrastructure - the original reason, they claimed, for their investment.