Then privatise it properly.
If I can't choose my water provider like I do with electricity and gas then it's not privatised. It's a monopoly.
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
96 points (96.2% liked)
United Kingdom
5150 readers
258 users here now
General community for news/discussion in the UK.
Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.
Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.
Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.
Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.
If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.
Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.
Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's easy to nationalise
Step 1, be the government
Step 2, create a new bill or whatever
Step 3, walk in to the water companies
Step 4, fuck the shareholders and give them nothing
I’d love this to be a 4 step plan however…
Step 5, Watch the collapse of virtually all private pensions in the UK as their value drops due to heavy investment in various water companies.
Step 6, Watch the gilt markets collapse as the UK government is seen as reckless and anti business as it removes assets from private investors.
Step 7, government borrowing goes up just as debt to GDP goes flying past 100%.
Step 8, government collapses and Nigel Farage comes swinging to the “rescue” by stuffing as many of the remaining £50 notes passing through the government into his pockets, and the pockets of his friends, while selling off the NHS and making the UK the first nation in the world to revert back into a 3rd world country.
Step 5, Watch the collapse of virtually all private pensions in the UK as their value drops due to heavy investment in various water companies.
Overstated I would say, pensions are heavily diversified.
Step 6, Watch the gilt markets collapse as the UK government is seen as reckless and anti business as it removes assets from private investors.
If the government continues paying interest on the bonds, why would the markets collapse?
You know what you’re right “collapse” of the pensions is overstated, but it will hit “low risk” pensions by a couple of percentage points. Low risk pensions options are mostly owned by people in their 60s who are keeping a close eye on their retirement income, and who also vote in large numbers, not the people you want to make clear you are going to take away a few hundred a month for the rest of their lives.
Just today government borrowing went up just because the growth forecast was a little worse then expected. If the government is suddenly on the hook for tens of billions in water infrastructure investment at the same time they are seen as anti-business and willing to rug-pull private investment, you bet foreign governments will sell their investments in the UK.
Just today government borrowing went up just because the growth forecast was a little worse then expected. If the government is suddenly on the hook for tens of billions in water infrastructure investment at the same time they are seen as anti-business and willing to rug-pull private investment, you bet foreign governments will sell their investments in the UK.
We don't need 'foreign investment', it's nothing but a euphemism for allowing foreigners to own our shit. Doesn't matter if it's government debt or houses, it causes inflation and it's just selling our futures.
Fuck foreign investment, might as well just print it ourselves or just take it from those that already have far too much.
Enough of letting finance spivs dictate how shit goes in my opinion.
If we let them win, we lose, if we fight them they will mess with 'the market' and generate as much FUD as they can but it's the only weapon they have and we need to take it off them, one way or another.
The investments I was referring to was gilts, which is how the government borrows money from foreign countries and private investors.
We do absolutely need foreign investment as our national debt is currently £2.7 trillion (about £40k per person)
If governments start selling that debt, then higher interest rates will be demanded for new gilts by those willing to still buy them.
NOOO
Stop putting thought into things!
I want to be sold on easy, populist solutions!
In that case I know a political party you’ll love… until the “find out” period comes for you.
Just ignore what is happening elsewhere, I’m sure it will be different here.
100% I’d love to see nationalised utilities more than anyone else but we need to be realistic that the choices are:
- the government spends an obscene amount of money to buy out the private interests, economy collapses and faraj gets in, or
- the government changes laws and takes ownership of the companies (and the debts) some way, needs to borrow tons to service the debts, economy collapses and faraj gets in, or
- the government just straight up steals control and the shareholders eat the losses. The above scenario plays out where pension funds collapse, the country is punished by investors withdrawing, economy collapses, faraj gets in. Free holidays to El salvador all round.
There is another way… the new government regulator can force terms on the water companies that limit bill hikes, pay, dividends and bonuses until the upgrades they were supposed to do over the last 40 years are completed and their debts are repaid.
The pensions take a bit of a hit without wiping them out and the government is just ensuring the vital infrastructure is upgraded and sewage is treated as promised when they privatised.
US uses regulatory commissions for electricity among other utilities...
It doesnt work.
The parasite captured it too. I am not even sureif anything works due to culture of corruption within Corp and state institutions
There is nothing that can be done tbh... just let them loot it. fuck it, who cares. The rich deserve to live their best lives.
No, they need to be made to put it right. But that requires a strong regulatory framework, sustained pressure from government backed with expertise and oversight from a capable civil service and it will take years.
Or we can burn it all down and get faraj who will not give two shits about water quality. The choice is ours.
I am with yo but there is clearly a strong bootlicker sentiment in this thread tbh
Muhh property 🤡
- Economy collapses due to sudden withdrawal of all foreign investment. Value of pensions crashes. Housing market collapses. Local councils go bust.
That would be a good day (except a bunch of pension funds would take a hit).
how to save money and win elections with this 1 easy trick billionoids don't want you to know about
What step do you drink shareholder blood and decorate facilities with heads on spikes?
Nationalising water is free - you just go 'no it's mine now'.
The British empire used to be the world champions of stealing other people's land and now you're telling me we have to spend 100 billion buying back our own fucking water supply? From some dick heads who've done nothing but dump shit into it constantly while fleecing everyone? It's an absolutely appropriate response to willful abuse of our national infrastructure. No wonder this parasite industry spends YOUR money to bribe spineless or idiotic politicians like Reed to protect their racket while the British public gets fucked.
If we just seized these assets back, they would be getting off LIGHTLY for what they have done. It barely goes far enough, they ought to be locked up for this behavior.
All well and good, but then we'd have a truss-like markets meltdown that drives up the cost of all borrowing and destroys investment.
There's a reason the government mass seizing industry is only done by banana republics.
We're better off letting them go bankrupt and letting the government step in as operator of last resort, as the law already lays out.
why is a Labour MP regurgitating industry lies?
Real head-scratcher, that one. Reeeeal brainteaser. An honest-to-goodness Labour MP? Shilling for think-tanks? In this economy? On Christmas Eve, in the rain?
Surely not. Because that would mean...
~~We have no valid voting choice as people on the left who care about progress and compassion and social justice, and haven't since the 1970's. Different flavours of Thatcherite neoliberalism are the only thing anyone under 50 has ever known, and the seemingly endless inertia of that failed ideology within the class-captured, self-reinforcing, closed system of government means it's likely all we'll ever know~~
Probably just a coincidence.
And if they’d give him the opposite line the next day, he’d have no problems repeating it, duly.
Just fine them £100bn, and declare them forfeit when they refuse to pay.
Have the shareholders considered that their shares aren't worth even shit?
To be fair, they have plenty of shit, so much so that they can just let it escape.