From our Green councillor Peter Christie:
As I write this we are all sweltering in the high temperatures though this is merely a continuation of the worrying trend where the last eight years have been the hottest ever recorded – with consequent problems of water shortages etc. It is, therefore, rather timely that South West Water will be present in Jubilee Square all day today (Thursday) and tomorrow hosting their ‘5L Challenge’. This aims to encourage members of the public to save 5 litres of water and though no time scale is quoted they will be offering free ‘water saving devices.’ This is all very well but a quick glance at the company’s ‘Summary Performance Report’ for 2020-21 shows that they missed their target on tackling leakages and were penalised to the tune of £3.875 million – and it is noted that their performance was actually below the average for water companies. Clearly we can all play a part in saving water but SWW needs to really tackle these leakages before preaching to us.
The long term answer would seem to be renationalising the water industry – especially given that this is one of the worst examples of Mrs.Thatcher’s half baked privatisation schemes in that privatising a vital resource which is also a monopoly was clearly stupid. The only people who have benefitted from this privatisation are the shareholders and the senior staff with their obscenely huge wage packets.
Another example of a foolish privatisation that has suddenly become important is that of energy suppliers. We are all aware of how prices have shot up in the last few months but how many people are aware that the National Grid has also been privatised – with the company’s Chief Executive being paid a disgusting £6.5 million last year? Of course the grid was actually paid for by you and me but I don’t recall being asked my views on this sell-off of what is another monopoly.
Competition is all very well but clearly there is no such thing with these companies – in my opinion renationalisation (with no huge payments to shareholders or principal officers) should be the order of the day for these concerns – and let’s not mention the railways.