Soldato
Mr Bliar, sorry Blair, was a Tory-lite, not a true Red.
plan for collapse of Thames Water
- Thread starter Mrwong
- Start date
Yep.
They pay out all this ridiculous money to shareholders and make loads of profit at the expense of the businesses longevity and the customers. Then they fail and it doesn't matter. They've already sucked the teet dry.
The profit never actually gets put towards the business or heaven forbid reducing prices and making customer service better for customers.
It's always just put into the pockets of the already rich and funneled off to some tax haven somewhere.
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From what I've read they didn't pay external dividends, I'm not sure what those are exactly, but "continued to pay dividends to service its debts, including a £37.1 million payment to its parent company last year".
The competition you can switch between though, is just a middle man in effect. The energy infrastructure is still being run and maintained by a few regional 'monopolies'.
In effect, the water industry is still set up so you're dealing directly with your 'network operator' rather than an intermediary bill collection provider.
You could add an intermediary to collect your bills but it would still be Thames Water (or for you Dwr Cymru Welsh Water) that actually do all the treatment, distribution, maintenance, infrastructure investment, leak repairs etc. you'd just remove the customer facing side of the business and turn them into wholesalers.
Soldato
Is this Labour's fault already? 
Sub company used to traffic money, reduce tax bill and then pays it out. This is a sneaky way to reduce taxation. Tell the public that no dividends were paid to shareholders.
It is just smoke and mirrors.
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Soldato
It's every governments fault for not cracking down over the years.Is this Labour's fault already?
The problem is to re-nationalise these company's would cost us an absolute fortune now as we'd have to pay something like the market cap value for the shareholders. So it does seem we've been royally screwed over by Maggie and her ilk.
Different to renationalising the trains, where we just have to wait for the current licences to expire and not renew them.
I know we had some significant issues with public owned national utilities in the past but what examples of private ownership are there where it's gone well (utilities)?
It seems a rampant and ugly version of free market capitalism has gone unchecked, compounded by ineffective governments and watchdogs.
It seems a rampant and ugly version of free market capitalism has gone unchecked, compounded by ineffective governments and watchdogs.
Caporegime
Wake up, Maggie, I think I got somethin' to say to you
Services all need to go back in to public ownership.
A service should be a business trying to make a profit, otherwise it isn't really a service.
If these companies can rack up so much debt, we should be allowed to refuse to pay their bills also.
A service should be a business trying to make a profit, otherwise it isn't really a service.
If these companies can rack up so much debt, we should be allowed to refuse to pay their bills also.
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Soldato
The whole premise of privatisation is to enable competition in the market. Competition between providers is what drives profit, ie who can provide the right service for the right price.
The massive irony about privitisation of water, is that there is no competition, you can't move to another provider. It's the same for the rail network.
Both sectors need to be looked at as a matter of urgency by the next Government because both sectors take the absolute ****.
The massive irony about privitisation of water, is that there is no competition, you can't move to another provider. It's the same for the rail network.
Both sectors need to be looked at as a matter of urgency by the next Government because both sectors take the absolute ****.
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At the very least, the government has to take on its debts (14bn in this case). Possibly having already guaranteed the debts will be paid, like they did iirc with train franchises.
As somebody else said above, privatise the profits, nationalise the losses. It's always the way.
The other thing is, it's amazing how people still don't understand that privatising effective monopolies can and never will work. It's not like you could ever choose your water company.
And Cameron was seriously thinking about privatising (selling off) the motorways... they just don't learn, do they.
Not, if we have to bail them out. The company is worth nothing after its debts are taken into account.
Over the years they sold off lots of assets.
The government trying to keep foreign pension funds happy.
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Don't get me started with Cameron, he and May were the worst.
Thames Water boss to forgo bonuses as dividend scrutiny on suppliers intensifies - CityAM
The boss of Thames Water will forgo performance related pay this year, with the supplier's turnaround plans still behind schedule.
www.cityam.com
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Is this Labour's fault already?
The absolute state of this country compared to 2010, it's going to end up Labour's fault in voters eyes at some point, probably around the time they vote back Cons in 10 or 15 years.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2013
- Posts
- 29,405
I can't really think of any to be honest.
I thought TFL was doing ok until the Pandemic.
Was a good chunk of that down to their revenues being significantly slashed?
Soldato
The problem with a lot of these private companies running essential services is they cut back and don't invest much money.
Nearly every private company running an essential service have never improved it. The only time they do is if there is competition. But in this situation there is no competition.
Nearly every private company running an essential service have never improved it. The only time they do is if there is competition. But in this situation there is no competition.