There are gaps to it, for sure. And I disagree with some of the substance, for sure. But let's not shit on a gov't finally at least trying to undertake reform. I also think that 3-4 years is a quick timeline, considering the magnitude of the task and that Cunliffe's points about capacity are fair.
I think people also forget that it’s taken years and decades to get into the parlous state and that doesn’t get reversed in a few months. It’s understandable though to keep shouting when it doesn’t *feel* like any progress is being made yet you still have to endure (@jonnelledge.bs today)
In case you missed his explanation, he said, in response to a press query, that the bottom line is that huge scale updating of the infrastructure is needed and there isn't an unlimited supply of money, materials, skilled workers, and specialists to do the whole country in months. It will take years.
Also, even if there was the workers and money now, do you really want to rip up sewers across the country all at once? People forget that roads etc are on top of sewers and it's hugely disruptive to change them!
I remember them doing some work in Chester and it was 18 months of disruption and that was with rolling closures to minimise it, but yeah sure rip it all out at the same time. 🤦
Yup.
Are we actually analysing what really needs updating? And are we asking people what trade offs they might accept? Eg I'd be happy to have more frequent hosepipe bans if it saves money. I might buy another water barrell!
This seems to me so plain and rational as to be quite inarguable. And while I understand everyone wants it done NOW those physical limitations are merciless.
I agree. However, there must be a policy direction that leads to our country regaining, if not all, a significant portion of our utilities assets. We also need to invest in and develop assets. particularly energy, housing, and food supply.
It is not sustainable for us to have billionaires and private equities owning & controlling these essentials.
Keep coming back to "What do we want?" "Perfection!!" "When do we want it?" "Yesterday!" "What does it look like?" "Not like that!!!!" "Who will pay for it?" "Someone else.."
THIS! Disappointed in Feargal too.
It’s trust in the government , any government , that has been lost . The fact that we have been paying for an essential commodity , trusted our money was being well spent , not frittered away for private profit . Trust in those who hold power over us , not exploit us
I have no dislike for this government in general, only for their transphobic attitudes and tolerance of the genocide in Gaza. But I think you’re overlooking one important point. Reform may take years, but let’s not ignore how we got here. That may give us a route to a much quicker road to recovery
Since privatisation (a huge mistake) the water companies have concealed investment deficits, present and, more importantly, future. They knew, of course, they even asked Ofwat to approve increases in bills to fund some of it, but they concealed the scale of the problem
When the water sector got privatised by the Thatcher government this raised £7.6 billion. In today’s money some £20 bn. Since then they disbursed £78 bn in profits to the investors. My estimate is that this equates to £105 bn
This is profiteering at the expense of the tax payer. It’ll be impossible to recoup that. That’s the price we pay for Thatcher’s neoliberalism. So the tax payer will pay for repairing that situation regardless. That’s another £105bn going.
The only thing we can ensure is that less tax payers money goes to investors and that our sole focus is on securing future supply and reducing seeds waste
But the govt will not face up to that long term problem, not least because politics lives only a few years. And so we’ll work on reports and reform that will take years and years and in the end very little will change. Fiddling in the margin.
Renationalise now and the repair work can start straightaway. It’ll take a couple of years, too, and the political goodwill may even carry them over into the next term. But at least it’ll be in the national interest.
After that, water and sewage infrastructure can be integrated with other policy elements of the national infrastructure, such as housing, transport, energy, etc.
The part that boils my piss is that this updating of the even-then-inadequate infrastructure is precisely what privatisation was supposed to do. So now we start from an even worse position, having spaffed billions on subsidising private profits