How will Labour deal with water firms facing financial pressure?
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- One of the first acts of the new Labour government may well be taking Thames Water into public ownership. The company, which serves around 16 million customers in south east England, says it has less than a year before its money runs out.
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It’s not the only water company facing financial pressure, but with its spiralling debt at a whopping £15 billion - the firm has so far been unable to find emergency investment.
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sack the CEO and make the Shareholders pay, then nationalise it.
It's called limited liability.
Presumably all shares are owned by private individual billionaires ?
why are foreign companies in charge of UKs infrastructure ?
@@Andrew-rc3vh Why are they allowed to pile debt on the company in order to pay out dividends?
@@alexplatten957 Same thing as they do with Airlines. Govts cannot allow airlines to go bankrupt because of the huge amount of job loss and infrastructure. So regardless of how poorly it is managed, the Govt will ALWAYS bail it out while the shareholders will squeeze every penny it can out of the company. Effectively, the Govt pays for the expenses, the rest of the money generated is pure profit with no expenses.
In this instance, it is utilities.
"firms facing financial pressure" maybe if they didn't give their CEO and shareholders millions they wouldn't be in a mess
Not just give but borrow to give away.
Billions*
Should be taken over by the government and nothing paid for the company because off there large dept. No more increases or hand outs .
Sold for a pound from private equity firms. Debt should be considered when validating them
Let them go bust and nationalise them. We're not paying off their debts and shareholders any more. They're not banks.
Yes and, if Thames water are correct that they have funds to function for another year, Labour have a year to prepare for this eventuality.
amazing plan. However, Conservatives will privatise the companies again once tax papers have paid their debts and underinvestment
Labour will privatise the NHS before the bring our water back into public ownership. You reap what you sow if you voted for the red Tories last week. The cherry on top is Starmer promising more weapons to Ukraine and he will bail out that nation before us.
Why should we pay more for water bills when the extra money will not go on investment but dividends & bonuses.
They aren't doing the job we all pay them very well for. The water is ours, their job is treatment and supply. They want us to pay more for what? Bonuses and shareholder dividends? They aren't even doing the job we are paying them for. Paying utilities shouldn't feel like being scammed. The expected profit margins of these companies is disgusting.
The CEO and Finance Directors should be 'persons of interest' to Scotland Yard in my opinion
Absolutely. They know full well the government will not let them fail. They have taken out loans to pay shareholders, no doubt based upon the businesses assets. The government will be forced to pay those debts to retain ownership of the assets within the business when they retake ownership. They have stolen our money and they should be in prison.
No bonuses should be legal on public resources.
Water should never have been Sold off, now with 8 Internal Companies - Who owns Thames Water?
a combination of russia and middle eastern oil countries! tories did a great job at selling the country
A Canadian pension fund is the largest shareholder
revolting. let's get this sorted out properly, and permanentaly. Nationalise.
If the water is not fit for human consumption, how is it affecting wildlife & plants?
Water companies should not have been privatised
They should have their company reclaimed from the private sector for risking public safety and health!
Then their shares, dividends, bonuses and profits should be reclaimed to cover the debts!
Shouldn't have debt loaded & asset stripped really, but that's modern capitalism apparently. They should be fined the cost of restoring neglected infrastructure.
This is one of the issues that everyone in the country agrees with what should be done about this, except the people running the water companies, ceo's and the government. 😒
If anyone else in any other job (bankers, polititians, post office execs excluded) did this, they would be removed from their position immediately and probably have lawsuits filed against them. They need to be held to account NOW and should have been removed years ago.
Sue the Conservative Party.
Pretty sure they've got a load more profits to pay out before they go broke.
Renationalising utilities was one of Starmer's stated priorities when he was running for labour leader. Seems obvious what the appropriate approach is
They've got smart meters installed in almost every houses and flats with increase in water bills by 50-90% or more compared to the fixed bill with an average of two people household.
It is astonishing and worrying that we had a Government who thought that privatising a monopoly was a good idea and equally sad that for the last 14 years we have been governed by people who shared the same flawed thinking and thought the sun shone from the milk-snatcher's backside.
Investors pay up...
Send the executives, past and present, a bill for 90% of their bonuses and enforce it by seizure orders for property and bank accounts. Or just nationalise it.
Well , who would have thought it . Money that should be going to supply Water going into Shareholders pockets ...Just like the '' Private Banks , when the Money is flowing Bonuses all round , when they fail , the Taxpayers bail them out .
Theyll have to cancel the dividendfor shareholders then the share price will drop like a stone.there knackered either way
Time for a Royal commission, me thinks. Let the entire country have a good look at what these utility company's have been up to.
What this shows is that the water authority OFWAT is not fit for purpose because water companies have been making profits for decades and yet here they are saying they are struggling with debt. Just how exactly does a company such as Thames Water go on for the past 20 years saying they have been making profits for the majority of those 20 years (figures are available from government website) but yet end up with a multi billion pound debt?? This tells me something dodgy is going on with the water business if a company is telling the public they make profits but behind closed doors there in fact in massive debt. This type of management should not be allowed and the government needs to investigate as a matter of urgency as to how many other UK run companies are doing the same thing, saying they make profits year in year out but behind closed doors are in massive financial debt.
2024 UK still needs to worry about safe water....
This is why you don’t privatize
Nationalize it now!!!
Nationalise the system now. We can't have shareholders involved in taking monies from upgrades and maintanance.
Privatising essential infrastructure meant forming dysfunctional cartels ‘regulated’ by cosmetic gum-bashing NGO’s that the Brexit Govt promised topop on their bonfire.
We were promised cheaper prices, greater efficiency and freedom from tax burdens
Late stage thatcherism
Precisely!
The witch loved privatisation and managed decline
The water is not the only thing that stinks in This story 😡
End foreign ownership.
Take it back into public ownership. Same with all infrastructure. Should never have been sold off to foreign governments and shell companies working for foreign governments
Today, pretty much all of the Northumberland coast has had raw sewage dumped in it by Northumbrian Water. That's not down south though, so I guess less important
CEO's should be held accountable for not running their companies properly!
Paying dividends when they are close to bankrupt should be criminal. The government needs to watch as this goes bankrupt then nationalise. Shareholders get nothing!
The complete failure of privatisation, this is not a new thing it has been going on since it was privatise.
Execs pocketed all the money
Force it into bankruptcy, make the shareholders lose everything and then nationalise it on the cheap.
No bail outs.
The govt should force all of them into bankruptcy like this, make shareholders pay.
Profits of £75 million, yet dividends to shareholders of double that!? Who works that out that these people are honest? Break them up, take the flak and protect the people who pay for these services
Government should take Water Companies back to State Ownership. Strengthen OFWAT with proper Leadership.
Take back ownership. Void the private contract. No recompense for company or share holders .
thanks maggie!
It surely is criminal. The way it has handled finances is incompetent at best. But i feel they have defrauded.
who told staff to open the valves and let sewage out ?!! jail them.
Dividends…
Let them go bust and then renationalise them. Make sure their debts are wrote off first. Shareholders can suck it.
10 million extra people what was the percentage of improvement?.
taken the money, pocketed the profits, no reinvestment in infrastructure. now claiming hardship.....
Go to any depot on any given day at about 330 pm and youll find them all sitting in their vans running down the clock.
They'll increase water rates, wooo
14 billion in bonuses on a free and abundant resource since its privatisation. No wonder they are running out of money. Maybe impose some sort of personal accountability on those shareholders?
But I thought privatisation was supposed to be more efficient 🤔
How can they be in so much h debt. They done nothing to any of their water for years. Too.many shareholders ripping off the people
Hold the bosses & shareholders to account, make them pay, then nationalise them.
Greedy baskets.
More to point how will he deal with us in debt with over priced bills,just another bill out of reach from British workers.sic
water companies will rise the bills to pay for decades of underinvestment while the dividends keep flowing
All utilities like this Monopoly must be a State Owned Firm operated at a 5% profit which goes into improvements each year.
Private Firms can Service these monopolies at a profit but they must be British owned and Taxed in Britain. …….This is a natural monopoly and should be operated in the interests of the Customer and not the shareholders who live overseas .
They won't, we'll have to deal with it. We're going to be paying for the bad decisions that led to this situation.
Making customers pay for your fukk up is absolutely disgusting,,and still collected his bonus...Disgraceful.
Still have big management wages and bonuses. They dont care.
Rip off merchants.
1.5 million more homes will be drinking it under Labour
stupid comment.
Drowning in Debt, but still paying out large bonuses to CEO and shareholders, why is that? Should the CEO present and past, done something about their debt, if l did not plan my finances l would be walking the street.
I can see TAXPAYERS footing this bill to pay for the bonuses the CEO, SHAREHOLDERS and others have taken for UNDERPERFORMING..... seems like these large companies are just in to make profit for themselves.
How will Labour deal with the water companies? Nationalise them, they are the Labour party after all, it's time to rein in these incompetent CEOs. What I've never been able to understand is that even when companies are under private ownership they still get bailed out by we the taxpayer, it's like these rich bastards get to enjoy all the benefits of capitalism but none of the pitfalls, when they make profit it goes in their pocket, but when they make a loss it comes straight from your taxes and mine.
Captive market and they cannot even look after a resource that involves imbedded social and ecological rights😢
Don't worry, Labour will nationalise it after paying tens of millions of pounds of OUR money to the shareholders.
Let them fall into bankruptcy, write off the debts, and nationalise.
Given their praise for maggie who gave private companies a monopoly and self regulation the red tories will do sod all.
Customers could refuse to pay en masse but if starmer supported the denial of water to gaza he'll be more than happy to take the same approach once the corporate stooge hands over a donation
The Thames was declared biologically dead in the1950s, but has seen decades of cleansing and restoration to be declared thriving in 2022. Has Thames Water destroyed the Thames again in 2 years?
Failure allround, including the regulator.
Surely do not not agree with stupid payout, but the ladies that says “it is not complicated” or the guy that says the treatment “ does not remove bacteria” clearly dont know what they are talking about!
1) sewage does not remove bacteria, it is true, because it is impossible to remove them. They have a bacteria treatment at the end, that drop the level within regulation but cannot remove them 100% as otherwise the water from the sewage plant would be so full of clorine that would kill the plants and animal around
2) on the lady i shall say i worked in this industry since i was 13 with my dad and it is very complicated! You need to know chemistry, biology, plumbimg, electricity, building and mechanical in order to keep it working. I shall say to henley, if you are so knowleageble pick it and do it yourself…bacteria will be the same and you will realize is it absolute complicated
well if the share holders were less greedy then there would be fairness all round.
Labour will deal with it by accepting "donations" from these firms and will then bail them out with taxpayers' money in exchange for a verbal promise that lessons are being learned going forward.
Thatchers legacy. Sell off & privatisation led to todays mess
Public debt under a different name because we have use them, we have to play off their debt 💸
So will this labour government say a spade is a spade or a spade is really a tiny little tea spoon 🥄
What else could we expect since Water was handed over to Tory Spivs ? 🤔( "Grren Fire" UK )🌈🦉
We need to re-nationalise our water, electricity, transportation and natural resources as soon as possible. I will not be surprised if the whole political as well as institutional structure of the country collapses
Seize it and assets, fine bosses (take their pensions if need be) jail who opened the taps and who told them too. and run it right. because a well designed system should not overflow with some rain. and solids are filtered at first stage so should never reach machinery in tanks let alone the out pipe.
Hopefully nationalise them. With minimum copensation to massively greedy shareholders.
cant wait to see labour fix everything :) right. right.... ?
Bring it back under public ownership easy the no competition in the water sector but won’t to raise it price 75 % let them go to the walll
Tory sewage scandals.
Was the Tories fault sunak letting people dump sewage into water streams, water shouldn't be privatised everything on the planet needs it
they need to go blud they need to go
man what happened to the UK ?
the tories sold everything off...
Neoliberalism happened.
Please will all Thames Water customers cancel your direct debits & withhold any payments to this shoddy immoral company, we can defund & bankrupt them, leave the debts with the owners & shareholders, prosecute past & present directors for environmental abuses & financial mismanagement, take back - not buy back the company into public ownership.
Its a utility that is a inherent monopoly and was mad to privatise in the first place, we have to be careful though if we want to renationalise because we could either end up with all this extra debt on the national balance or scare away investors in other areas where we need private investment in infrastructure, it’s going to be very difficult for the government to handle
By self-pee?
Hahaha Alan Milburn is back and you mugs are upset about asset stripping co dir's..😮😅
What is more important is how is Keir Starmer going to supply enough water for an extra 20 million immigrants when there already isn't enough for Britain's current population ?????
why doesent all the different water companys in the uk take over thames water then then it will be sorted out with out expences to the public.
a lot of them are in the same boat. all they care about is CEO pay and shareholder payouts
Hahahahahahaha Y’all wanted to be like America, what happened? Hahahahahah. Hang in there Brits, you haven’t seen nothin’ yet. Shits about to get a loooot worse…welcome to American life!