Anti-privatisation campaigners have called the ban a 'token gesture'
Campaigners have accused the government of ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ over its current policies on the water industry.
The comments come as bonuses for water bosses at six water firms were banned today (Friday 6 June) and while the ongoing crisis at Thames Water rumbles on.
On the day of the ban coming in, the Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “Water company bosses, like anyone else, should only get bonuses if they’ve performed well, certainly not if they’ve failed to tackle water pollution. Undeserved bonuses will now be banned as part of the Government’s plan to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.”
However, Cat Hobbs, director of anti-privatisation group We Own It branded the bonus ban a ‘token gesture’ and said it was ‘tinkering round the edges whilst still propping up Thatcher’s failed privatisation experiment’.
Hobbs said: “With this latest announcement the government is just fiddling while Rome burns, or more accurately fiddling while England drowns in raw sewage. This is a token gesture and water bosses have already indicated they’ll just increase salaries instead.
“The Water (Special Measures) Act along with the pointless Cunliffe review is an exercise in tinkering round the edges whilst still propping up Thatcher’s failed privatisation experiment.”
“If you’re banning bonuses for failing water bosses, you should be banning all shareholder payouts from failing water companies. If you follow this to its logical conclusion, you should be banning private companies from our water system entirely.”
She went onto highlight that the public support taking water into public ownership and to argue that this model has been proven successful.
Hobbs said: “The government is worryingly out of step with the country and the world on this issue. 82% of Brits want water in public ownership. 9 out of 10 countries run water in public ownership.
“Public ownership works. In Scotland publicly owned water delivers cheaper bills (£113 per year cheaper) and more investment (£72 extra per household).
“Public ownership saves us money and would quickly become a valuable revenue source for the public purse. Research by Greenwich University shows that public ownership could save us £3-5 billion a year – even if water shareholders are fully compensated.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: House of Commons – Creative Commons
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