- The renationalisation of monopoly utilities and services, compensating only individual investors and pension funds. Privatising monopolies does not benefit either the consumer or the country. All that happens is the ‘family silver’ is sold off and monopoly utilities and services are asset-stripped, often by foreign competitors. -
The opportunity to buy British utilities came about during Margaret Thatcher’s reign (1979 – 1990) as the Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party. At the time the government was struggling to reduce the massive public debt (4% GDP), which was brought on by the recession during the early 80’s. Margaret Thatcher had to raise funds fast, so decided to put most of the government’s valuable assets up for sale to the highest bidder. The privatization policy also put an end to the governments ownership of British Airways, British Gas, British Petroleum (BP), British Telecom, British Rail, British Aerospace (now known as BAE Systems), Rolls Royce, Jaguar Cars, The Rover Group and many more.
A 2001 study by the Public Services International Research Unit, which is affiliated with trade unions and opposes privatisation, stated that
- tariffs increased by 46% in real terms during the first nine years,
- operating profits have more than doubled (+142%) in eight years,
- investments were reduced and
- public health was jeopardised through cut-offs for non-payment.
After some online research of the Electricity/Gas distribution companies that operate in the U.K, I found that 5 of the largest Electric/Gas suppliers are foreign. Also, 8 of the U.K’s largest Water/Sewerage companies are also from overseas.
Public water and sewerage companies that have been sold to foreign buyers:
Thames Water ---- Currently owned by Kemble Water Limited (MacQuarie Bank of Australia)
Anglian Water ---- Currently owned by Osprey Consortium of Canada
Bristol Water ---- Curently owned by Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona S.A. (Agbar) of Spain
Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water ---- Currently owned by Cascal, a subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries of Singapore
Cambridge Water Co. ---- Currently owned by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI) of Hong Kong
Veolia Water UK ---- Currently owned by Veolia Environnement S.A. of France
South East Water/Mid Kent Water ---- Currently owned by Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund Utilities Trust of Australia.
Public Electric/Gas suppliers that have been sold to foreign buyers:
London Energy ---- Owned by EDF of France
Npower ---- Owned by RWE of Germany
SWEB ---- Owned by EDF of France
Seaboard Energy ---- Owned by EDF of France
Powergen ---- Owned by E-On of Germany
Twenty years on, and with the LibLabCon parties playing musical chairs with the job of leading this country, we are back in a recession and have a massive national debt. So, the knee-jerk reaction from the previous government and the current Lib Dem/Conservative coalition is to sell off assets, rather than look at where money is being wasted. The British National Party has stated time and time again that the best way to save the tax payer Billions, is to pull out of the European Union, Illegal Wars, and stop overseas aid.
From recent news reports, we, the British public, will also lose the following assets to foreign buyers:
Channel Tunnel: British share (50%) to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Macquarie of Australia, or Borealis and Global Infrastructure Partners of Canada
Royal Mail: Partial or complete sale to Deutsche Post of Germany, or TNT of Holland
The Port of Dover: To Nord-pas-de-Calais regional council, which also owns Calais.
Is there anything left?
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