plan for collapse of Thames Water

[bigmike20vt]

Me to. I actually feel dirty agreeing with him, but yep, let it go to the wall. An example should be made, although I'll be very surprised if it is allowed to fail, and fully expect us all to just pick up the bill.

well you know what they say about broken clocks......... I dont disagree with him either for the most part.

only difference would be that personally i would prefer that once it went to the wall it was the government who then picked up the pieces and essentially renationalised it.

but letting it fail and then picking up for pennies in the pound sounds a much better plan than bailing them out to me.

The problem is......... Moggy for all his flaws IS a very good speaker and can make even the most bat sh.. ideas sound good. So i do wonder if i am missing something.

 

[Uther]

well you know what they say about broken clocks......... I dont disagree with him either for the most part.

only difference would be that personally i would prefer that once it went to the wall it was the government who then picked up the pieces and essentially renationalised it.

but letting it fail and then picking up for pennies in the pound sounds a much better plan than bailing them out to me.

The problem is......... Moggy for all his flaws IS a very good speaker and can make even the most bat sh.. ideas sound good. So i do wonder if i am missing something.

Maybe he forgot to invest in it and wants to pick it up for 50p himself...I am heartily sick of the state of this country now. I'm like one of those old farts that says things were better in the past, but they really were before the rot set in.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

The tax payer will end up bailing them out. Hope I’m wrong.

 

[StriderX]

It's a natural monopoly... no amount of obfuscation from rentier parasitical garbage can wish away reality. We'll be paying for it eventually.

 

[200sols]

Me to. I actually feel dirty agreeing with him, but yep, let it go to the wall. An example should be made, although I'll be very surprised if it is allowed to fail, and fully expect us all to just pick up the bill.

He's probably earning from the collapse somehow.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Maybe he forgot to invest in it and wants to pick it up for 50p himself...I am heartily sick of the state of this country now. I'm like one of those old farts that says things were better in the past, but they really were before the rot set in.

Except that the rot of underfunding and underinvestment was there long before privatisation... Things most certainly were not better!

 

[a1ex2001]

Except that the rot of underfunding and underinvestment was there long before privatisation... Things most certainly were not better!

I don’t remember the state run water boards putting 57bn that could have been invested in the network into the pockets of private investors, maybe I was to young to benefit from that hand out!

 

[One More Solo]

Does the investors taking a hit magically solve the pipes blasting **** across rivers and beaches?

Not at all, but it might solve the issue of where the money can be found for necessary investment if the water companies aren’t paying 10% interest coupons to Cayman.

 

[One More Solo]

They've just issued a default notice.

 

[Diddums]

They've just issued a default notice.

I shouldn't laugh as I'm dependent on them but watching this whole debacle unfold is literally the entire reason I've not trusted these companies ever. People say I'm far too cynical, well, this is why

 

[adam cool dude]

I shouldn't laugh as I'm dependent on them but watching this whole debacle unfold is literally the entire reason I've not trusted these companies ever. People say I'm far too cynical, well, this is why

I pay direct debit for everything in my household. Water is the only thing I do not and pay it at the last moment possible. I have been like that for 15 years. The fact a private company can have a monopoly over you has always irked me.

 

[One More Solo]

If the Government deal with this the same way they dealt with Bulb etc we should riot.

 

[visibleman]

So i do wonder if i am missing something.

Given it's JRM, i wouldn't be surprised if there ulterior motive behind what he says; similar to what @Uther says, perhaps he and/or his hedge fund buddies want in in some way...

 

[ttaskmaster]

I don’t remember the state run water boards putting 57bn that could have been invested in the network into the pockets of private investors, maybe I was to young to benefit from that hand out!

I'm sure some of it went to covering up all the MP affairs with Soviet spies, Nazis spies, gays and gangsters, the attempted murders, and all the usual fraudulent conduct typically found within government.
It certainly didn't go into the network... Private investment and repayments are just a more legal way of skimming off the taxpayer.

 

[arknor]

Does the investors taking a hit magically solve the pipes blasting **** across rivers and beaches?

let them go bankrupt and seize all the infrastructure we paid for anyway

how come they can flytip into rivers but we would get get fines or prison time

 

[arknor]

What they want was a free ride, they held this country to hostage. They wanted to have no fines, keep paying dividends and few other bits. Oh and increase bills by a massive amount.

If those points were allowed they would invest. Just on that blackmail I'll let them go bust.

Took Northumbria Water 2 years to fix a burst pipe near me.
It wasn't a busy road and closing that section even on both lanes would have made no difference to anyone.
for 2 whole years it was like a stream appearing from the middle of the road and running most of the way along it.
They seemed to fix it in a single day as well.... must have been a really easy job


Their system for prioritizing reported leaks must be based on how many people report a single problem, irrelevant of how bad that problem is.

Then until its been reporting soo many times it's basically ignored

 

[ttaskmaster]

Took Northumbria Water 2 years to fix a burst pipe near me.
It wasn't a busy road and closing that section even on both lanes would have made no difference to anyone.

Who owned the pipe? Was the ownership clearly established from the outset?
Who owns the land it was on? Was access readily available or did NW have to issue notice and go through the court proceedings?
Who owns the road? Was the council agreeable to works taking place, or did they throw up a lot of objections?

Sometimes even the simplest job can be prevented by an army of people, who object just because they can...

 

[arknor]

Who owned the pipe? Was the ownership clearly established from the outset?
Who owns the land it was on? Was access readily available or did NW have to issue notice and go through the court proceedings?
Who owns the road? Was the council agreeable to works taking place, or did they throw up a lot of objections?

Sometimes even the simplest job can be prevented by an army of people, who object just because they can...

doubt there would have been any objection.
council surely own the street.
Google has a pic of the leak

Okay it's not a massive flood but it was a constant steady stream of water, and probably more of the flow is staying under the road I'd imagine?

Street view showing closing this section of road would have made almost no difference to anyone

Spoiler: Google maps

2 years bro.. was during covid though to be fair, but surely that means its a good time to fix it anyway?

 

[ttaskmaster]

doubt there would have been any objection.

Oh, you'd be surprised....!!!
Well, livid is probably the better description, for most people.

council surely own the street.

Presumably, but that doesn't mean that's where the leak is coming from.
It could be from any surrounding pipe, serving any surrounding property, on any surrounding land. This spot is just where it's trickling out. The complexities of establishing where it is, who owns it, who is responsible and then effecting the necessary access/permissions for just a simple repair can be staggering, especially if someone in the chain wants to be an arse about it.

Street view showing closing this section of road would have made almost no difference to anyone

Possibly, but you never know.
There's a tiny little road in London, barely more than an alleyway, which seems the most inconsequential to the uninitiated.
We closed it for some evening works a few years back, which meant commuters couldn't use it for a rat run. The ensuing traffic backed up and out of London toward Watford, and then pretty much stopped traffic all the way clockwise around the M25 to Kent. The Police were not impresssed with us!

Most likely it's just a trickle, rather than anything running or gushing (technical classifications), so would be very low priority anyway.

 

[Werewolf]

My response to the investors deciding they will not put the money required into a vital utility is fairly simple.
The Utility will no longer be privately owned as the current owners are refusing to maintain something that is essential thus have defaulted on their obligations, or if it's simplier legally, then the investors are no longer allowed to make any decisions financial or otherwise in regards to the utility, the stocks cannot be sold privately, and the government will take over the running of it and pay out when the current debt and any further money the government have to put into it has been paid off (effectively the government become the stewards of it, IIRC that is what effectively happens with orphaned estates if the heirs cannot be traced).