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Thames Water

droodzilla said:
It gets worse:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-how-capitalism-must-work-for-the-common-good

To recap:

1. Leaked email from the CEO of a privatised water company rallies her fellow CEOs to discuss how to avoid nationalisation - by signing up to the idea of "social purpose".
2. She tells her fellow CEOs that Observer columnist Will Hutton (who has contacts in the Labour Party) will facilitate this discussion.
3. She also mentions that the Labour leadership is aware of this initiative and has asked for it to be treated with utmost secrecy.
4. Evening Standard publishes the story - rightly so, as it looks like a pretty big deal to me.
5. The Guardian publishes a sanitised version of the same story.
6. The Observer publishes a column by Will Hutton arguing that nationalisation is not a priority, with some warm fuzzy words about "social purpose".
7. In the same column, Hutoon assures us that this is not a "fig leaf", oh no, heaven forfend!

What the hell is wrong with The Guardian/Observer (and the Labour Party)?

Seriously, can you believe these ****ers?!
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Looks like sensible grown up politics to me. Or corporate PR same thing I suppose.
 
ks.234 said:
If we really want social, economic and environmental justice, we need a new economic model in which government spending is explicitly purposed as a public utility, not a private one. One driven by moral ends, not as now, amoral ends. One based on science, not a quasi religious belief in an invisible hand
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FWIW I've just found a recording I made in 2012 of Paul Mason interviewing Steve Keen on BBC R4. Makes an interesting listen in the current context as he essentially predicts where we are now! Alas it probably isn't available now unless someone has snuck a copy onto YT or similar?
 
droodzilla said:
I

What the hell is wrong with The Guardian/Observer (and the Labour Party)?

Seriously, can you believe these ****ers?!
Click to expand...

Staremore is now being advised my Mandelson. They are trying to 'triangulate' as per Tory Plan B *again*. The problem is a mix of them being trapped by falling for the standard bollx about the economy and terrified of being monstered by the Daily Hate.

The aim is to be in Office even if not in power or doing what it needed.

Pig in lipstick
 
The crisis at Thames Water could deter overseas investment into the UK, ministers and industry figures have warned, as the utility seeks to raise at least £1bn to shore up its finances. Conservative ministers maintain that concerns about the financial resilience of water companies — and “intemperate” talk of possible temporary nationalisation — could create a “risk premium” for investing in UK infrastructure.
...
John Reynolds, chief executive of Castle Water, which provides water and sewage services to business customers in London and the south-east, warned that Thames Water’s troubles were likely to deter overseas investors. Reynolds highlighted the billions of dollars in subsidies for infrastructure investors provided by US president Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. “Making a decision to invest in Thames is getting harder anyway because returns on infra in the US are significantly higher than in the UK,” he added.
...
Investors are understood to be divided over putting money into the company in a tougher regulatory environment. New rules enable Ofwat to curb dividend payments if a business is under financial stress or fails to meet environmental commitments.

https://www.ft.com/content/24d49c0a-3abe-4b87-abf5-d0684bee87be
 
paulfromcamden said:
The crisis at Thames Water could deter overseas investment into the UK, ministers and industry figures have warned, ...

https://www.ft.com/content/24d49c0a-3abe-4b87-abf5-d0684bee87be
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Well, (pun alert!) perhaps we're better off *NOT* having 'investors' who only want to do so on the basis that it loads someone else with huge debts. And then get away with it leaving us with a mega-mess as it fails to provide what it was set up to deliver to its clients and damages our country.

In other contexts this would be at minimum called 'theft'.
 
Basically. Water along with Railways, Energy, etc, should be operated in the National Interest, not for (someone else's) 'Profit'. All the promises to the contrary seem to now, ahem, not smell of roses! Add in the need for Social housing.

The Tories (of all parties) have given us years of bribing us with our own assets-being-sold-off. Now, almost literally, the sh1t has hit the fan on that.
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
FWIW I've just found a recording I made in 2012 of Paul Mason interviewing Steve Keen on BBC R4. Makes an interesting listen in the current context as he essentially predicts where we are now! Alas it probably isn't available now unless someone has snuck a copy onto YT or similar?
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Just stumbled across this, The Dead Parrot of Mainstream Economics by Steve Keen which you might be interested in

http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue104/Keen104.pdf
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
Well, (pun alert!) perhaps we're better off *NOT* having 'investors' who only want to do so on the basis that it loads someone else with huge debts. And then get away with it leaving us with a mega-mess as it fails to provide what it was set up to deliver to its clients and damages our country.

In other contexts this would be at minimum called 'theft'.
Click to expand...

'Overseas investment' aka selling prime assets to foreign interests. Labour could have a field day with stuff like this, yet they just ignore it.
 
FWIW I'm currently reading "S.O.S. - Alternatives to Capitalism" by Richard Swift. Nicely written. I think one of the things it points out fits the LP:

Policy of trying to "manage" Capitalism to 'play nicely'. Doesn't work, of course, but makes them more acceptable to those with real powe. Useful as a way for the ultra-wealthy to make clear to Tories that "you can be replaced if you don't do what we fund/support you to do."
 
alanbeeb said:
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...c-anger-could-finally-sink-uk-water-companies

What the actual ****. They borrowed money to pay dividends and bonuses. Not from profits, but BORROWED money! What sort of business model is that? Absolute madness. I cannot believe this happened in a country that supposedly has functioning government and business regulation.

But it did.
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That is standard business practice now - buy a company , load it with debt and asset strip it. What-his-name Phillip Green? did that to Debenhams was it - sold its stores then rented them back and ran the store to the ground loaded with debt before "disposing" of it.
 
Ponty said:
WTF were the regulators doing?
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[Thames Water CEO] Cathryn Ross headed Ofwat between 2013 and 2017, a tenure that overlapped with Australian investment group Macquarie’s ownership of the troubled water company. She joined Thames in 2021 as head of strategy and regulatory affairs. The decision to install Ross as temporary co-chief following the abrupt departure of Sarah Bentley last month has prompted criticism of the “revolving doors” between Ofwat and the industry it regulates.

At a hearing of the House of Commons environment select committee on Wednesday, Labour MP Darren Jones invited Ross to apologise for what he said were the regulator’s shortcomings under her leadership. “I won’t apologise for my role at Ofwat, no,” Ross replied. In a tense exchange, Jones aid: “But you signed off as the chief executive of the regulator in 2014 for Macquarie to ramp up the debt from £3bn to £10bn while taking out nearly £3bn in dividends, often paying dividends higher than the profits the company made in particular years.”

https://www.ft.com/content/a3b2173b-3fe0-45e7-8ad9-93d023a4a365

The appointments of the current and previous chairs of the water regulator Ofwat should be investigated, campaigners have said, as the Liberal Democrats called for the watchdog to be abolished. Jonson Cox, a former chair of the regulator, had multimillion-pound links with the privatised water industry before taking up the role. The current chair, Iain Coucher, remains a senior adviser to a global private equity firm that has interests in the water industry in the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...f-ofwat-chairs-past-and-present-water-industy
 
It is really weird to watch Tory polticians trying to blame 'regulators'... for carrying out the rules the Tories set! Sort of 'human shield' ploy. Up to Government to choose the regulators, set the regulations, and ensure they get applied. Which should include having a report back. In the end the Goverment are responsible because that's what they take on when elected.

If they are now "shocked" then they weren't paying attention.
 
mercalia said:
That is standard business practice now - buy a company , load it with debt and asset strip it. What-his-name Phillip Green? did that to Debenhams was it - sold its stores then rented them back and ran the store to the ground loaded with debt before "disposing" of it.
Click to expand...

don’t forget the dividend that he paid to his missus. What was it, a £billion.
How is it that this kind of theft is NOT regulated against
 
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