So many political parties are stating the same old, same old reactive posts on any social or public service issues without offering a realistic solution. So let’s try something different! See my analysis and solution below (which does not always end up at the taxpayers expense as suggested by some of the political parties). It is so easy to push everything back onto the taxpayers!
The History
1. Our current sewage and water system was installed in the 1850’s…. yes, in Victorian times over 170 years ago.
2. The UK population in 1850 was circa 21m and growing in a managed way. The good old Victorians knew a thing or two about managing population growth.
3. The system was designed with a single flaw, it merged sewage and fresh rain water to stop the system bursting when reaching over capacity.
4. The design was created to grow with the predicted population increases of those times. It would have been designed to be monitored and changed in design by future governments and Parliament depending on population and industrial growth.
5. Our rivers and seas have not grown over the centuries but we have added more reservoirs to increase capacity to some very small degree.
6. We privatised the national infrastructure system in the 1980’s leaving it debt free and ready to be redesigned and rebuilt by future generations, as necessary.
7. There are now 25 water utility companies in the UK, with similar debt ratios and dividend payments over the last few decades to mercenary investors.
The Problem
1. There are no assets left in the privatised companies to reinvest in future infrastructure, as they have been asset stripped over decades by a multitude of investors which have left the privatised companies with significant debts.
2. Thames Water investors have recently refused to inject the £500m required for it to continue to trade past April 2025. This may require an intervention by Parliament, to take the company back into national ownership and past the liabilities onto UK taxpayers.
3. Most of the managerial focus has been on doing the minimum maintenance in the infrastructure, as the main focus has been to make profits in order to pay dividends, rather than invest in its future.
4. To rebuild the infrastructure for modern day needs, investment will be in excess of £100 billion between 2025-2030 and this maybe just enough to rebuild the existing design with modern materials and technology but not a total redesign to separate sewage and fresh water. We could be investing twice that amount if we redesign the system as required in order to clean up our rivers and seas.
5. The population growth is currently the fastest in UK history, with a predicted population in excess of 80m by 2050. An increase of 4 times the population when the infrastructure was built, so this is urgently needed now.
6. The regulators for all the privatised sectors in the UK are inadequate and the statutory legislation needs updating to maintain investment, a fair return to investors while investing in the future infrastructure.
7. Past and current investors have moved on with no accountability for the mess they have left behind.
The solution
1. First we must sit down with the current providers to create a fair structure going forward and to protect the current investors with a fair return on investment without necessarily putting the costs onto taxpayers.
2. We need to look at the past legislation where we establish what recourse we have against past investors. If there is no recourse we request those investors look towards giving back morally or ban them from future UK investment as they are clearly the wrong type of investors we wish to have embedded in our national infrastructure. To be clear, there must be recourse or accountability for the past asset stripping now that taxpayers are picking up the tab, either directly or indirectly. Just walking away will not be accepted there is a moral and ethical responsibility for their failure and it is important Parliament puts right this wrong.
3. Also we need to look seriously at nationalising the infrastructure , again with recourse back to mercenary investor models that built up the debt and paid £billions of dividends leaving companies insolvent as a last result.
4. I would go as far as to look at prosecutions against investors as they may be negligent and become personally responsible for the companies debts. Again this could be a consideration if there is no acceptance of responsibility. Parliament must use all its powers, to bring these investors to account and shut the gaps in legislation that allows for mercenary investors to exist in the UK economy. We need a new missionary approach and most investors have already pushed their investment vehicles into more morally and socially responsible models.
5. We need to see debate on the redesign of the whole infrastructure to suit the modern needs of a modern society and not just take the easy route of just maintaining our current victorian design. We need to have the big conversations and build for the future but in a managed and affordable way.
Conclusion;
1. We need to close the gap on mercenary style investors in the UK coming here and asset stripping our national infrastructure. This would also protect the private sectors that have seen investors strip the assets from many of our historic companies.
2. We should hold past investors to account for their poor moral and unethical behaviour that has asset stripped our national infrastructure and has pushed the debt back onto UK taxpayers, taking us for fools.
3. We will set a new standard in UK business where investors will be rewarded for acting responsibly. They will be rewarded for sustaining a well run business that supports its workers as well as the customers it supplies.
4. The UK is still open for business. There will be great rewards for ethical investors but stay away if you wish to come to this country and extract our assets and leave us with the burden.
5. This will help reset a number of areas of our lives where we will get rewarded for working hard but stopped from taking something for nothing. We have too many members in the “something for nothing” club and this will be reversed overnight by Parliament being strong and decisive with this one issue.
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