What can be done about the avaricious and selfish

Another here who thinks that the water industry should never have been privatised.

I am not against high salaries per se, as in the 21st century companies have to pay the going rate to attract the best.

What is becoming blatantly obvious, however is that despite paying water bosses huge salaries along with their bonuses, they do not seem to have attracted the best in their field.

Shareholders and pension funds are being payed whilst the infrastructure of our waterways and sewage systems are in decline.

Apparently £billions is peanuts these days! So much is/has been wasted.
It may seem a drastic option and would take time but it needs to be done.

As I understand it, taking water back under public ownership would cost the taxpayer billions, so where is the money to come from to build more sewage systems and stop the pollution issues we are suffering from? It seems like we're caught between a rock and a hard place.

It's not good to have utilities in foreign ownership that's not in our vested interest as a nation. The consumer suffers whilst as stated above, the profits are creamed off.

The government can’t just decide to buy out private organisations at huge cost to the taxpayer, that’s why the approach to water is as it is. I still think Thames Water will be nationalised in this parliament, but only when there is no other option because the company has failed. There are previous threads about this on Gransnet if you want the detail.

The privatisation of water companies should never have been allowed and subsequent Labour governments should have taken steps to reverse it.
Yes, access to water should be a basic human right and not an opportunity to make obscene profits, nor bosses rewarded for failure. Customers have no choice but to accept and put up with poor service while bosses and foreign investors cream off huge profits.

I hope Andy Burnham will tackle this as a priority.

Lathyrus3

The sooner water is taken under public control the better.

I was hopeful a Labour government would make it a priority.
I was disappointed.

I am also disappointed. Imho I believe making ‘our’ water a public asset should be high on Labour’s agenda.

The sooner water is taken under public control the better.

I was hopeful a Labour government would make it a priority.
I was disappointed.

Yes agree Oreo and depressingly because of the binding nature of contracts, it seems they're set in stone, why can't some clauses apply dependent on performance Managers of Health Trusts where overwhelming negligence has occurred on their watch are some of the worst imo and then they just move on to another lucrative position.

Paula Vennels is another who springs to mind she picked up a fair whack and the lives she ruined

TerriBull

Just agree! It's particularly depressing when massive pay awards/pay outs are given to those who just fail upwards. I would absolutely like the tax threshold raised for those who are on very basic money and far more taken off those who deliver a lousy service via a monetary sanction, but I know that won't happen.

I always wonder about the golden handshakes for failure!
I suppose it’s what is written in the contract and what the shareholders agree to.🤬

Just agree! It's particularly depressing when massive pay awards/pay outs are given to those who just fail upwards. I would absolutely like the tax threshold raised for those who are on very basic money and far more taken off those who deliver a lousy service via a monetary sanction, but I know that won't happen.

I heard this on r4 Today programme this week that CEOs are earning 130 times more than their staff.
Not double, treble, ten times as much, not 100 times as much, but 130 times as much.
Do we not all have pay the same for our daily bread, our pint if milk.
Where woukd these overpaid people be without the workers. It is truly obscene.

Totally agree.
Water is a human right not a privilege yet in our first world country families are suffering from water poverty, unable to afford to keep clean and drink water in the kind of heat we have recently had.
Only a very few countries have privatised water and the UK is one of them, pray Burnham nationalises the water in this country, it should never be in the hands of privateers out to make as much money as possible for their stakeholders.

My vicar said this in 2017.
Since then it has only got worse.

But then I read of people who think it is fine for bosses of charities to earn a lot of money.

It was then, at this point, that I personally gave up the fight.