Water is a National Emergency for Britain but it isn’t being treated that way. The scale of environmental pollution that is occurring because of the mismanagement by the water companies and the disregard which they have shown towards their obligations to manage this precious resource properly should already be enough to sack em off. What we need to bear in mind is that Water is essential for life. Not only human life but the welfare of creatures living in the environment as well. Water is essential for bathing and cooking. Water is just essential for normal life. So is the right to live in a unpolluted environment with access to clean rivers, clean beaches and clean seas.
These Water Companies were granted the custodianships of our resources under the Thatcher governments. All they have done is exploit them and run them into the ground for the benefit of greedy shareholders many of which have no vested interests in our country. Instead of re-investing in the infrastructure they siphoned off profits to greedy shareholders and neglected their sole purpose which was to provide a healthy water industry. Thatcherism failed and the public were duped by empty promises of improved services and cheaper bills.
In time the whole privatisation issue collapsed and failed. It was illegal to sell off public assets in the first place. Successive governments failed to address the issue. The Tories were too ashamed to admit defeat and face the truth. To admit that Thatcherism was a failure would have been too much since most of their subsequent policies were based on Thatcherite principles. Labour under Blair did nothing either and they are also complicit regarding the mess that we now find ourselves in.
Now this current Labour Government are also going to miss the mark too. There are currently no plans to hold these water companies to account by relieving them of the duties which they have so far failed to fulfil. Instead of taking these companies back into public ownership a new system for monitoring them is going to be established. This is just tinkering and will do very little to deterr the arrogance of the companies or stop their avarice. It’s likely that such an agency will be staffed by the same staff that ran Offwat and Defra and the Enviromental Agency. So the whole thing may amount to nothing more than a change in name. These companies are not bothered by punitive fines or threats of cuts to bonuses for Chief executives. As Southern Water has just shown that they find ways around such measures by doubling the Salary of the Chief Executive with a swqeep of the pen.
Labour have shown a lack of creative thinking to address the issue of public ownership of water
There has been a lack of creative thinking around what to do to address the problems in the water industry in the UK. Labour have shown a lack of creative thinking to address the issue of public ownership of water. Public ownership is required to addresss the issue and anything short of that just won’t do.
The first thing needed to address the problem is to declare a National Emergency. That should basically put us on a war footing with these water companies ( under such circumstances it should be possible to strip them of their assets and relieve them of their responsibilities). We should be at war with these companies because they are destroying the essential resource and they are destroying the environments in which we all live. At present the shareholders are basically holding us the ransom. This National Emergency could be established through the courts as it can be seen that these companies havent been acting in the public interest for an extended period of time and have been conducting themselves in way that has been designed to cause the public harm and the harm the assetts which should belong to everybody in the UK. The last issue to prove is that these companies are unfit to carry out their roles and have neglected their responsibilities. This should be enough to remove them and relieve them of their duties. This would only cost the amount of litigation required and it is nowhere near the amounts needed to buy them back to recompense. In any way the Country and it’s citizens own these resources and they are a national asset that should never have been sold. Get possssion of them with some creative thinking and less dogma is what is required. We have the right to fire them if they are not looking after the precious resources as they should.
We have only to prove that they are not concerned about the public and only concerned about the dividends that they pay out to shareholders. These companies are asking for increases in bill payments from the public to baile them out. That simply isn’t good enough. Enough is enough this is now a NATIONAL EMERGENCY. Labour needs to act as though we were on a war footing with these companies and seek to simply take the responsibilties away from these companies by sacking them because they are not fit for purpose and the country is suffering environmental and resource damage because of the huge mismanagment issue.
This Government is giving them a second chance when there should be no second chances. This is not the way. offering second chances only prolonges the agony. These companies have a history of mismanagement dating back over 30 years. There should be no second chances they have already had enough time to improve and chosen not to do so. If this government is reluctant to declare a NATIONAL EMERGENCY then it should at least seek their removal through the courts. We already have a good case. This governement really need to engage some creative thinking around the issue to seek a solution.