Thames Water nearing the cliff edge.

[motorbiking]

The tax payer will end up paying the £20Bn debt. The alternative is investment in UK utilities and Energy will collapse.

 

[IT Minion]

The tax payer will end up paying the £20Bn debt. The alternative is investment in UK utilities and Energy will collapse.

Leading to what? I don't care what the share price of my utilities provider is, what would the actual negative be to consumers.

 

[motorbiking]

Leading to what? I don't care what the share price of my utilities provider is, what would the actual negative be to consumers.

Who provides the money if not via investment.

 

[Brigadier]

Who provides the money if not via investment.

Investment or no investment, it's ultimately always going to be the taxpayer.
Coz the private sector knows it can take the profits from the monopoly, run it into the ground, and we'll eventually bail it out.
Then it'll be sold off again.
Rinse and repeat.

 

[motorbiking]

How you treat the collapse of one impacts the rest of the industry, even those who are successful.

 

[Brigadier]

How you treat the collapse of one impacts the rest of the industry, even those who are successful.

Yes.

"Ultimately".


Who wouldn't buy into UK utilities, when they've been shown that they can take the revenue, pay, bonuses and dividends, neglect the upkeep, then leave the taxpayer to pick up the tab?


It's getting a money back guarantee on the lychee of a lottery ticket.

 

[morqthana]

Who provides the money if not via investment.

Not the current rapacious private-sector owners.

 

[morqthana]

Yes.

"Ultimately".


Who wouldn't buy into UK utilities, when they've been shown that they can take the revenue, pay, bonuses and dividends, neglect the upkeep, then leave the taxpayer to pick up the tab?


It's getting a money back guarantee on the lychee of a lottery ticket.

Pass a law, take it back, sequestrate the assets, let the shareholders and creditors go to the wall. It always used to be the case that if a commercial business went bust it was the shareholders who lost their money, and some/all of the creditors.

 

[Mottie]

Pass a law, take it back, sequestrate the assets, let the shareholders and creditors go to the wall. It always used to be the case that if a commercial business went bust it was the shareholders who lost their money, and some/all of the creditors.

Nowt wrong with Thames Water.

Thread 'Looks like I had my sewers replaced just in time!'

28 Jun 2023

Took 6 weeks including a whole road closure and cost Thames water around £80k. What chance would we had of getting them replaced now? Can’t even get them back out to finish off a 5m strip of asphalt. Perhaps they are not paying the contractors?

Thames Water in urgent funding talks amid fears of collapse

Whatever happens to firm, which serves a quarter of the UK population, water supplies will continue as normal.

www.bbc.co.uk

Still, at least the lazy fecking CEO has chucked in the towel.

Thames Water boss quits after sewage spills

Sarah Bentley steps down weeks after giving up her bonus over the company's poor performance.

www.bbc.co.uk

• Mottie
• Replies: 24
• Forum: General Discussion

 

[IT Minion]

Who provides the money if not via investment.

An odd idea since the investors for Thames water have basically bled it dry and sucked the money out.

 

[motorbiking]

Pass a law, take it back, sequestrate the assets, let the shareholders and creditors go to the wall. It always used to be the case that if a commercial business went bust it was the shareholders who lost their money, and some/all of the creditors.

Which they become acutely aware of if it’s the state dictating the transfer. It discourages broader investment

 

[morqthana]

It discourages those whose idea of "investment" is to extract the value out of a business, load it with debt so they can use borrowed money to keep shareholders sweet and make themselves rich because they think that ultimately the taxpayer will be made to fund all that and they can walk away.

 

[motorbiking]

So where does the money come from?

BTW. I’m totally against privatisation of industries where there is no competition.

But in this case it will end up in court and the tax payer will fund the debts.

 

[Brigadier]

So where does the money come from?

Where does it come from now?

The customer, who is also "the taxpayer".

 

[fixitflav]

But in this case it will end up in court and the tax payer will fund the debts.

And the lawyers' bills