No money to the profiteering polluting bosses!
With every passing month, Thames Water moves closer to the brink of collapse. Now it has announced its preferred buyer – US private equity firm KKR – has dropped out. Presumably KKR decided it wouldn’t be easy to squeeze much more out of the failing privatised company.
Nationalisation continues to appear to be inevitable, eventually. When push comes to shove, any government will be forced to step in to prevent total collapse of a company that supplies water to roughly a quarter of Britain. 69% of Britons believe the water companies should be brought back into public ownership. But the Labour government continues to refuse, claiming it would be ‘unaffordable’.
Earlier this year, Thames added another £3 billion to its existing £20 billion debt pile. Thames Water paid £37.5 million in dividends to shareholders in October 2023, and £131.3 million in March 2024. These barons have been hiking our bills, polluting our waterways and filling their own pockets.
We say nationalise, but don’t pay the debts racked up by the profit vultures. Compensation should only be paid where there is proven need – to safeguard workers’ pension investments, for example. That would not be unaffordable, but it would be unpalatable to the capitalist class whose interests this Labour government represents.