Live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as company owned by billionaire Sir James Dyson says job cuts are “always incredibly painful”
The idea of nationalisation of the UK’s water supply did not seem to be on the cards during the 14 years of Conservative rule (although in the case of the railways the party did relax its apparent aversion to public ownership). But could a Labour government be more open to it?
The party has firmly said that it is not planning to nationalise the company. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds last month told an election debate that “people should not expect the state to bail out bad investments”.
Today’s latest crisis is being used to set the scene for the same old story that we’ve come to expect from water privatisation: shareholders mismanage a vital public service and who do they expect to pick up the tab? Households, taxpayers, and our waterways.
Water privatisation may have lined overseas shareholders’ pockets, but it failed to deliver for the public or for our rivers and seas. It’s high time that this government takes Thames Water into Special Administration and then transfers it to local councils to run, giving anti-sewage campaigners, local residents, and water experts seats on its board.
Chair: Rhian-Mari Thomas, chief executive of the Green Finance Institute
Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England
Amanda Blanc, chief executive Aviva
CS Venkat, chief executive Barclays
Hugh Crossley, chief executive of Equitix
David Vickers, chief investment officer of Brunel Pension
Carol Young, chief executive of USS, the university superannuation scheme
