[Sussex] Southern Water rip off

[Oh_aye]

buy you do have a choice to buy different water..

There's plenty of bottled form in the supermarkets. However you choose not to do so. -

When Southern Water Chatbots go rogue.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Water - a huge saving would be not paying sky high interest on borrowings/corporate bonds. Also (but this gets exaggerated) not paying dividends. With the saving, freeing up cash for investment.

Vey much this.

Unfortunately prior to privatisation the Government decided that the public should pay off all the water companies debt and give the newly privatised companies some significant financial 'help' to get started, so they were first privatised completely debt free and had significant cash.

Since then they have managed to run up debts of c£65 Billion. Which, purely coincidentally, is the exact figure (give or take a few mill) that they have paid out in dividends over the same period

 

[Eeyore]

I agree. It wasn’t a paradise until 1979. My Dad through his business dealt with the utilities, we heard him cursing the sheer incompetence of outfits such as Mid Sussex Water.

Railways is a very unique picture discussed in great nsc detail. Our 185 year old irrational network is boxed on by £T’s worth of homes and offices. We can’t start again, Germany got a fresh start due a Harris and the USAF, whilst Switzerland started much later. France build over pristine countryside with TGV’s, highly centralised government meaning objectors are simply overridden.

Even 4 x Corbyn/McDonnell 5 year plans couldn’t replicate the Swiss railways.

But why does the UK make it so much more complicated with the dumb separation of land, operators and rolling stock leasing companies?

All the above.

My issue is more that making a utility private without competition relies on the concept of efficiency which has let us down as a nation for a long time.

The railways is an interesting one. Like you say, the infrastructure is old and was originally built for freight in the main. It's an unyielding cash cow too. When GoAhead lost the Southern franchise it wiped out a huge chunk of its annual revenue- but only a very small percentage of profits. I took a keen interest, being a shareholder in the group at the time, and realised how it seemed it had hardly been worth it. There is a romantic ideal that we would return to the golden age of railways, Janet and John and the Railway Children. Of course, there never was a golden age. Just a huge leaky pot in the transport budget in Westminster. Beeching was needed (although, like many utilities, it lacked forward planning). I wonder what many folk would say if they were asked what the average franchises profits were. They would nearly all be wrong. It was mostly between 1-3% (with government subsidies included). That won't add a Burger King to your family day out in Eastbourne.

So, in principle, I would suggest that the state should own the utilities, but the idea that we would all be better off is for the birds.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

" government should do the same as they’re doing with the rail companies and take them back into public ownership"#

And fund this how exactly? - increase your taxation? - Is that ok?

I don't have the answer, but some of the suggestions / statments i've seen are just absolutly astounding...

Yes it is ok. Taxes should be used for the public benefit.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

buy you do have a choice to buy different water..

There's plenty of bottled form in the supermarkets. However you choose not to do so. -

I don't have a choice for my shower, toilet or washing machine. Nor do I have a choice on which company deals with my waste water.

The water industry is a monopoly and thus they are more interested in paying their foreign shareholders BILLIONS rather than provided a decent level of service.

You claim not to be employed by Southern Water but you're doing a very obvious job of defending their performance and charging metrics. Me thinks you are connected to the water industry even if it isn't Southern Water directly.