Is Thames Water about to collapse?
- Thread starter Bingoman
- Start date
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
(from earlier article)
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
the problem here is that it is not the throat of the executives you need to cut but the throat of the executives of the shareholding companies, still a centrist here.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Oh, once you start cuttin' it's so hard to stop! Just gonna have to work through both.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
'every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats'
davesgcr
Reading books
"cost discipline"i.e. not repairing leaky pipes and not treating sewage
A bit like grasping Railtrack - "Project Destiny" - as reccomended by some very expensive consultants - do not replace miles of track - just do spot replacements as an when - great news for shareholders , but of course a legacy of broken rails and worse was the result. Of course when they folded and became "Network Rail" - this fine legacy had cost implications down stream , of course on the public balance sheet.
Same argument applied no doubt to water - people keen to "bleat" about "Victorian railways" - but pretty safe to say that there are no Gladstone / Disraeli era rails carriyng modern rail traffic - unless maybe Bazalgette water drains in the middle of Central London. Of that era)
In my "career" the oldest track found was a very little used set of handpoints in the yard at Neath (1911) , some track at Willesden low level from 1937.......hardly a major worry compared to say Euston to Crewe.....on the main line . Both these examples were replaced / abolished which is how I came to know of them !
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
OFWAT's interim verdict is that water bills on average should go up by 21% over the next five years, which is reported to be £19 per year, which doesn't sound too bad.
Southern Water has been asking for around 73%, and Thames Water 42%, Thames Water's proposed increase of £191 by 2030 had been reduced to £99.
www.moreradio.online
Southern Water has been asking for around 73%, and Thames Water 42%, Thames Water's proposed increase of £191 by 2030 had been reduced to £99.
Water bills to rise by average 21% over next five years, regulator rules
Water companies in England and Wales have been told they will not be allowed to impose the hikes to bills they have demanded, the industry regulator has said in an interim verdict on their business plans for the next five years.
www.moreradio.online
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Yes, we're witnessing the end-point/limit of the neoliberal asset management model of utility ownership. Not only are they vehicles for regressive wealth redistribution but also assets to be regularly flipped for profit based on ever increasing return profiles. That can't go on as the shit in our rivers and drinking water proves.
LakieLady
Well-Known Member
OFWAT's interim verdict is that water bills on average should go up by 21% over the next five years, which is reported to be £19 per year, which doesn't sound too bad.
Southern Water has been asking for around 73%, and Thames Water 42%, Thames Water's proposed increase of £191 by 2030 had been reduced to £99.
Water bills to rise by average 21% over next five years, regulator rules
Water companies in England and Wales have been told they will not be allowed to impose the hikes to bills they have demanded, the industry regulator has said in an interim verdict on their business plans for the next five years.
Southern Water has just announced its CEO is getting a bonus of £183k:
Bonus
Apart from the tons of shite they pour into the rivers and sea, in Hastings alone they have had 2 significant burst main incidents in the last year. One flooded the town centre for days and the other left thousands of homes without water for over a week.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
I remember reading about those flooding events, and needless to say we have the same problem was sewage being released into the sea in the Worthing area too.
Chilli.s
mingling jets and statuettes
This exactly.
If ever there was an example of how conservative government rips off everybody just to profit the few then this is it.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
They don't have to; they work within the privatisation legislation.
Jimmy Don't
Well-Known Member
To anyone that works within the industry, these days were always coming. At a local level, even pre-privatisation, water board yards were corrupt as you could imagine. Some prominent London locations were staffed by whole directly employed families who did very little, some times not even coming to work, with contractors paid to go and actually dig holes and mend pipes. It was brown envelopes a plenty and there a many a large huge contractor and haulage contractor today who's business started getting paid fortunes for a relatively small kickback to a local area manager. 5 loads of MOT type 1 to the yard? Sign these delivery notes for 20 loads and here's £50. Deal done. You want £10k for your daughter's wedding? Here's an invoice for 4 weeks of 20 labourers, get that paid and I want to be on the top table. It was so rife, the lads with a shovel in their hand throught nothing of it. There was a pub next door to a one yard, where an area manager would hold court every Friday afternoon, with a procession of contractors and subcontractors turning up to pay their dues. Many any incident of contractors having multiple vans outside a manager's house for weeks, while they decorated it, or lanscaped his garden, all paid for by the water board. And they were all at it, and everyone knew, so none of them would ever rat the others out. The weekend supervisor was signing a timesheet for two grab lorry drivers who weren't at work, but they were giving him half the shift money they were paid, his manager knew, but was his father-in-law and was signing for the muck they weren't taking away and getting half of that and so on. And then multiply that by everywhere.
Fast forward to after privatisation, the and the huge money available drew in bigger and bigger sharks and that macro-level explotation went nuclear, with a succession of larger and larger contractors coming in a making fortunes. Over time that became peanuts as huge banks came in realised how much could be siphoned off with little to no risk. I've no doubt the the hugely inflated cost of doing work was a contributory factor to the goldrush that followed.
Fast forward to after privatisation, the and the huge money available drew in bigger and bigger sharks and that macro-level explotation went nuclear, with a succession of larger and larger contractors coming in a making fortunes. Over time that became peanuts as huge banks came in realised how much could be siphoned off with little to no risk. I've no doubt the the hugely inflated cost of doing work was a contributory factor to the goldrush that followed.
hash tag
Reaching out
It's great that Thames Water is being heald to account and Wandsworth is using this to bring my roads up to scratch but on the other hand my water bills are paying for this
Wandsworth Council fines Thames Water £500K over late roadworks
More than 320 Thames Water roadworks were delayed in just over two years, the council says.
www.bbc.co.uk
hash tag
Reaching out
Does that help?
Dystopiary
putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon
I reckon they deserve being pelted with stocks in the rotten fruit.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Funny enough I once had a dispute with Curry's, the manager was refusing a refund, so I pointed out that the next day I would be back with posters & flyers, mounting a one man protest outside the store.
HIM - That will not help you, Mr Stunt.
ME- {with maximum eye contact] Maybe not, but it'll make me feel better.
At which point he realised I was being serious, ordered the cashier to issue a refund, and stormed off.
So, the lesson is, it may not help, but it would make people feel better!
tim
EXPLODED TIM! (Help me!!!)
Is that tube tunnel they've built under the Thames filled with shit, yet?
ska invita
back on the other side
New campaign including withholding paying bills from a quick glance
takebackwater.uk
Our Tactic
The water companies rely on us paying our bills to make money.Thames Water alone takes in £2 billion every year. This is our only leverage – if we can coordinate to use it.
So we’ve come up with a new tactic: short-term withholding of payment. This is a form of financial disobedience to build confidence and power from below – and it’s how we can make ourselves heard on the issues that matter most. To do so, we need hundreds of thousands of people to participate whilst ensuring we keep each other safe.
Now is the time to act. The water industry is vulnerable. Thames Water, the largest water company, is on the verge of collapse after being loaded with over £15 billion of debt it can’t repay. With the rest of the industry also crumbling under a mountain of debt, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity for public ownership by and for the people.
If we don't do this now, the failing water companies will likely be re-sold and the cycle will repeat.
Here’s the plan
We’re giving the new government 100 days to commit to public ownership. This gives us until October 14th to prepare to call the first strike wave — if they refuse to act.
We’ll use the first 100 days to build Take Back Water as a movement. We’re taking action together, so we need to convince as many of our friends, family and neighbours to pledge to participate. Our website will show a running total of the number of people joining our movement.
Take Back Water
We could turn the tide on 40 years of privatisation and failure. Join the movement today.
takebackwater.uk
Our Tactic
The water companies rely on us paying our bills to make money.Thames Water alone takes in £2 billion every year. This is our only leverage – if we can coordinate to use it.
So we’ve come up with a new tactic: short-term withholding of payment. This is a form of financial disobedience to build confidence and power from below – and it’s how we can make ourselves heard on the issues that matter most. To do so, we need hundreds of thousands of people to participate whilst ensuring we keep each other safe.
Now is the time to act. The water industry is vulnerable. Thames Water, the largest water company, is on the verge of collapse after being loaded with over £15 billion of debt it can’t repay. With the rest of the industry also crumbling under a mountain of debt, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity for public ownership by and for the people.
If we don't do this now, the failing water companies will likely be re-sold and the cycle will repeat.
Here’s the plan
We’re giving the new government 100 days to commit to public ownership. This gives us until October 14th to prepare to call the first strike wave — if they refuse to act.
We’ll use the first 100 days to build Take Back Water as a movement. We’re taking action together, so we need to convince as many of our friends, family and neighbours to pledge to participate. Our website will show a running total of the number of people joining our movement.
Jimmy Don't
Well-Known Member
It's great that Thames Water is being heald to account and Wandsworth is using this to bring my roads up to scratch but on the other hand my water bills are paying for this
Wandsworth Council fines Thames Water £500K over late roadworks
More than 320 Thames Water roadworks were delayed in just over two years, the council says.www.bbc.co.uk
Those fines aren't even that big to be honest. If you were to look at the NRSWA fines paid by Statutory Undertakers over the last couple of decades the numbers shown there are small beer. Millions and some really ridiculous - a single sign left somewhere for months building up to tens of thousands in fines.
WouldBe
Dislicksick
Perhaps you could add "Thames water" to the ban on expletives in titles.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
'People are right to be angry', says water boss
The boss of Water UK says the UK's system is old and that bill rises proposed should be higher.
www.bbc.co.uk
they're looking for a bailout aren't they?
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