Following an excellent interview in the Guardian on Tuesday, Ed Davey has now made an impressive appearance on the BBC Newscast. It starts about 5minutes 30 seconds in.
He talks about the G7 summit and the local elections, but the main topic of discussion is sewage. He says that bill-payers should not be paying for the errors of the water companies, and that some of the practices were illegal anyway and they have not been meeting their legal obligations.
Ed is asked how the Lib Dems can turn the local election surge into success at the next General Election. He thought we might have gained 150 Council seats, but in the event we took over 400. He is asked the inevitable question about a possible coalition with Labour, and he confirms that there will no deal ahead of the election. Instead Liberal Democrats will be concentrating on winning more seats.
They also chat about the stunts – knocking down the blue wall and the big blue clock. He claimed credit for inventing the Blue Wall concept and his brilliant team for turning it into memorable visual images.
Finally, obliquely referring to the Guardian interview, Ed is asked how he has coped now and in the past with family trauma and his caring responsibilities. In reply he talks a bit about Emily and John, and about the need for mental health support for carers and for bereaved children.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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Very recently an ambutee ended up in one large pot hole in Bath.
Ed Davey: “but the main topic of discussion is sewage. He says that bill-payers should not be paying for the errors of the water companies”
Steven Swinford, The Times: “Water UK confirms bills will rise to pay for cost of stopping sewage being pumped into rivers and sea”
Sam Freedman, columnist at Prospect and TES: “I think the sewage outrage will quickly turn to bills outrage in October when the new tariffs are announced. They will be much higher than current levels. Partly because of this and partly because of inflation.”
So if Ed Davey is saying that “bill-payers should not be paying for the errors of the water companies,” what does that mean? We need massive investment in infrastructure, we are funding large dividends for lackluster work already. Is it simply that LD’s are opposed to nationalising the service?
No one mentions the 59 accidents at Keynsham or the power wheelchair amputee. The pavements are in a sreadful state.
@Helen Dudden
The main topic of discussion of this interview appears to have been sewage. And the failures of the water companies.
Does it not bother you that you will be expected to pay via your water bill for the water companies’ failures?
Lots of things bother me. The high energy bills, the cutting of spending to children’s services. I have been writing on Autistic Children and lack of education.
As a Power wheelchair user I find the indifference towards us with lack of housing, a 40 year wait in many cases.
I find being disabled does not credit me with much respect.
The greed of the water and utility companies is both immoral and extremely selfish.
This article in the Guardian shows one key factor as to why our Water industry is totally out of control.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/20/revealed-warning-to-ministers-over-privatised-water-kept-secret-since-2002
The private equity model of business is always the same
Step 1) Take over a well know entity with lots of public support (either statutory or nostalgic). This is your cash cow.
Step 2) Lend it lots of money at high interest rates from elsewhere in the private equity group. This allows you to take money out with a veneer of legitimacy which would be much more difficult to take out as profits/dividends – i.e. Milk the cow.
Step 3) Set up all the profitable bits as separate companies, sell to other parts of the Private equity group. Increase charges to the main company to further reduce its profits. i.e. Carve up the cow (but keep it on life support)
Step 4) Use the lack of profits to justify price increases i.e. capture the regulator
Step 5) When things get desperate sell off the profitable parts (e.g. land, buildings) and lease back short term i.e. Sell off the cow shed and the farm house
Step 6) If things get really desperate make things so bad as to force the government to act and run a publicity campaign saying how good you will be if only … Then wait for re-nationalisation. Quids in again!! i.e. Sell the corpse of old cow back to the state which hasn’t got the physical assets needed to carry out the task.
We need a Hard Hitting policy on this. Any other takers?
The utility companies are in it for profit. Not good standards, profit.
I loved my time working in Local Authority Education, it wasn’t the salary, simply working to the good of the taxpayer.
You could add MPs within the subject of public service.
Standards are low.
Hi Helen,
I would use different language here to get our point over.
I would say something like
The utility companies are the vehicle hijacked by the Private Equity vultures to extract/extort the public’s money out of what should be a public service.
As you say, public service is important.