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SE water hosepipe and sprinkler ban

On 16 Jun 2023 at 3:20pm Victor M wrote:

SE water is introducing a hosepipe and sprinkler ban from 26th June so it would be a good idea to highlight the many mains leaks that you discover to help those who must have a clean car.
It will also help SE water as the minions can continue to pay fat bonuses to the shareholders and bosses. Buckets and bottles can also be filled up in the streets from the cascading fountains which will also provide showers.
Leaks filling up the potholes will usefully provide paddling pools and outdoor baths for those who find their supples disrupted too.
Hosepipe ban in June?�..
��.I don�t BELIEVE it!!

On 16 Jun 2023 at 5:26pm Nevillman wrote:

Only too believable I'm afraid. How can they be expected to stop leaks, provide clean water to customers and stop dumping sewage in rivers and the sea when their main aim is to provide a return to the Australian and Canadian investors who own the company which enable the bosses to get their bonuses on top of their fat salaries?

On 19 Jun 2023 at 1:50pm Slarty wrote:

In the last 13 years (to 2022) 2,970 homes were built in the Lewes area (Local Authority)
326,110 were built in the South East.
Any how many extra reservoirs were built in that time?
I know I'm thick, but it cant all be down to climate change, leaks, Brexit or the Tory government.

On 19 Jun 2023 at 5:25pm Nevillman wrote:

They are all arguably contributory factors slarty. The Tories initially put a blatantly public utility into private hands where it became just another product to make profit out of rather than a staple of humanity. They did not sufficiently regulate the water companies to ensure the right level of investment required by these private companies to ensure that everyone has clean water and sewage is properly dealt with. The fines that southern water faced for all the pollution they caused were derisory compared to their profit and they still made massive profits for the shareholders which meant bonuses for the bosses.
Climate change increases demand. Leaks are tolerated as repairing them would require investment. Brexit means the country is poorer so there is less available for investment despite the increases in population and households. The electorate are to blame for falling for the rhetoric of the Tory party and voting for tax cuts rather than a party who would invest in the infrastructure and future wealth of the whole country rather than the individual wealth of the already wealthy.

On 19 Jun 2023 at 8:25pm Tom Pain wrote:

Thank goodness Labour re-nationalised them when they succeeded the Tories!

On 20 Jun 2023 at 8:08am Nevillman wrote:

It's estimated it would cost �90 billion to renationalise the water companies. There is a debate in the labour party over whether it should renationalise but the expense to the public purse seems to be a problem.

On 20 Jun 2023 at 9:41pm Tom Pain wrote:

What if they'd done it as soon as they got in, riding high on success and virtue, with public opinion right behind them? Some hope. There's always a "good" reason why they can't quite manage to do the right thing. And I mean the whole lot of them, they're all sold out, they have to be because they've got to go begging for the money to do everything.

On 21 Jun 2023 at 7:22pm Nevillman wrote:

It would still have cost the equivalent of an estimated �90 billion to buy it back. That is almost �1500 for every man, woman and child as you would essentially be buying the whole water and sewage infrastructure off of the private water companies. It's easy to see that the government would pick other spending priorities than this and try to use regulatory methods to improve the performance of the water companies. You could put it to the electorate that if elected you would take this amount off taxpayers to renationalise water but it is unlikely to get you elected.
The railways which would be much cheaper to get for the government as you would only have to wait for the franchises to be up and then take them over. The present government have however ensured that none of the franchises will become due for renewal during the 5 years of the next government so again it would be prohibitively expensive.
That is the "good reason" not to renationalise. I'm not sure what you mean by selling out Tom.