Whilst paying their shareholders 70 million in dividends
Don't mind me, just gonna periodically drop in here and leave articles proving that water companies such as Yorkshire Water are polluting our waterways and getting away with paying insignificant fines whilst paying their shareholders dividends.
While Britain was in the EU, a national chemical and ecological survey of rivers was conducted annually. After Brexit, the WFD was transposed into English law.From 2016, the government decided to test water quality under WFD every three years rather than annually.
Governments since have been able to enact the WFD and now the Environment Act (which, as I've said before, is a mind bogglingly costly thing to implement) and not had to worry about borrowing the money themselves to finance it, that's the water industry's problem.
Water companies, whether privatised or not, will have the same income streams
Quote from: Teaboy on May 09, 2024, 10:46:13 pmWater companies, whether privatised or not, will have the same income streamsI think your example of Tideway is the exception rather than the rule. And in that scenario the government isn't actually borrowing the money, it's backing it. Governments can borrow at lower rates but will they borrow, or rather, will they enact the legislation in the first place that means they will have to borrow. (2022 estimate for delivering the storm overflows bit of the Environment Act is £178bn, so add some inflation onto that. Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/624460a18fa8f527744f0655/storm-overflows-evidence-project-march-2022-addendum.pdf).I'm not really arguing for or against privatisation, but I wish that people wouldn't talk about nationalisation like it's some silver bullet that will fix everything they don't like about the water environment. I'd love people to have clear ideas of what their aspirations for watercourses are, to know what it would take to get there, and to be cognisant of the challenges and implications (delivering the Environment Act is going to release A LOT of carbon. A LOT.) of getting there. I think the press have let the public down badly on this front. Just my opinion.