Reversing privatisation would save households £250 a year

Polls also show the majority of the public would support bringing services under public ownership.

Polls also show the majority of the public would support bringing services under public ownership

Households would save around £250 a year if energy, water and rail were in public ownership.

New research by Corporate Watch and We Own It suggests that savings would be made both from shareholder profits not being paid as well as from the fact that the government could borrow more cheaply than private companies to raise the money needed to invest in services.

In 2013, private energy, water and rail companies paid out £12.7 billion to investors. If these services went public, there would be a total saving of £6.5 billion; £4.2 billion from energy, £2 billion from water and £352 million from rail services.

This would filter down to household savings of £160 on electricity and gas, £75 on water and £13 on railways.

This week is important in assessing the impact of privatisation. Monday marked the 28-year anniversary of gas privatisation while Thursday will mark 24 years since electricity privatisation. Friday is the 25th anniversary of water privatisation.

The research also comes just after the government’s decision to reprivatise the East Coast railway.

Prices of these services have been have been outstripping inflation for years. Between 2007 and 2013, household gas and electricity bills rose in real terms by around 41 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

In real terms, water bills have increased by 50 per cent since privatisation, while rail fares are 23 per cent higher than they were in 1995. These companies are owned by some of the richest people in the world, including banks, investors and foreign governments.

Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It, said:

“Households are getting squeezed by ever rising train ticket prices, energy bills and water bills, while incomes can’t keep pace. Politicians talk about the cost of living, but it’s time to look at the cost of privatised living.

Privatisation is a failed experiment while public ownership could be a much more efficient alternative. We could run these services ourselves and save money, either for households or for government.”

According to polls, 66 per cent of the public want railways to be in public ownership, 68 per cent want energy to be in public ownership and 71 per cent want water to be in public ownership.

The authors of the research add that the actual savings of making these services public would probably be even higher than estimates, as the costs involved in regulating and outsourcing private services would be eliminated.

26 Responses to “Reversing privatisation would save households £250 a year”

  1. Leon Wolfeson

    You’re ranting.

    Water is a regional monopoly so there is no real bar to wholesale nationalisation, at low to no cost. Trains can be renationalised by not issuing new TOC’s.

    Gas and Electric can’t be directly renationalised without compensation, but their vertical monopolies can and should legally be broken up – other EU countries such as Ireland have done so and won the legal challenges thereunto.

  2. Leon Wolfeson

    The UK has regional water shortages. This is because we have regional monopolies which have no required mandate to use those newfangled “pipeline” things. You’re blaming the EU for that, when it’s entirely UK-domestic.

    Moreover, no, there was never any way power prices would fall, please don’t make silly statements like that. Previous falls have not been passed onto customers, period.

    You’re happy with skimming constantly off consumers for profit, always plenty for that.

  3. itdoesntaddup

    Read the Water Directive: it insists that water be managed river basin by river basin. Trade via pipelines is strongly discouraged, as is the building of additional reservoirs. Rationing by price is strongly encouraged.

  4. John Mangan

    Though the Tories are ideologically wedded to the idea of selling off industries that belong to the people without compensation the truth is that 65% of our railways are owned by NATIONALISED foreign train services, French and German. They know what our so-called leaders refuse to face ie railways that do not need to pay shareholders can put more into the service and infrastructure. It seems they are clever enough to exploit the economically illiterate Tories to subsidise their own and who can blame them? It’s Thatcher, Cameron and Co who are to blame for our railway mess. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/410039/The-great-train-robbery-How-we-subsidise-foreign-rail-fares

  5. madasafish

    Stop subsidies: so no more windmills, no more green energy , no more nuclear power and no more cheap insulation for the poor.

    Are you sure that is what you want?

    Because if that is what you get, we will surely run out of electricity generating capacity by 2020 and blackouts are inevitable..

    ( NOTE: I am NOT saying all energy subsidies are desirable.. Just pointing out the effects of removing subsidies as suggested..)

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