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This from Isle of Wight Green Party chair, Vix Lowthion. Ed
On the day of a hosepipe ban, a fourth day of Red Funnel strike action and with rising energy bills forecast, Isle of Wight Green Party chair Vix Lowthion declares that the crises in our vital utility industries won’t be solved until they are no longer run by private companies.
Summer 2022 will be one to remember
Not only do we have the victorious Lionesses and a Commonwealth Games full of energy and determination, but also a hosepipe ban, railway and ferry disruption and astronomical electricity and gas price rises. English sportspeople are leading the way, but our politicians are prominent by their absence – both physical and in terms of ideas.
One clear factor links our water, transport and energy crises – and that is the abject failure of the privatisation of our vital infrastructure in the last 40 years.
Privatisation of our water supply
This has led to an increase in sewage in our rivers and coastlines, empty reservoirs, leaking pipes and today’s hosepipe ban on the Isle of Wight.
The drought we are entering is not just to do with climate change, but decades of under-investment and mismanagement. Last month Southern Water were awarded a pathetic one-star rating by the Environment Agency: creating private water companies has done nothing to increases standards and decrease the pollution of our water supply.
Privatisation of our ferries and trains
Since the 1990s this has led to public money going into private hands with an average increase in ticket fares of over 23 per cent, and rail company shareholders receiving a £500 million dividend last year.
Red Funnel workers have been forced into strike action after the private company refused their call to end poverty wages.
Meanwhile this summer the Germans can travel across the country for 9€ a month, and in Spain some train journeys are free.
This benefits the pockets of ordinary people, as well as reducing CO2 emissions from cars.
Privatisation of our energy industry
This was supposed to lead to greater competition and cheaper prices for consumers. But in this energy crisis, a nation such as ours (which actually is an oil and gas producer) has seen prices rocket to an average of £300 a month and rising, with a pathetic amount of support from the government.
This week, BP announced £7 BILLION profits in the last 12 months.
Meanwhile, France is planning to spend the same amount of money to nationalise the energy company EDF to keep a handle on soaring household bills for the French people.
Need to bring water, transport and energy industries into public ownership
To tackle the big crises we are facing this summer, we need to bring the water, transport and energy industries into public ownership. Costs are spiralling out of the pockets of householders.
The service that our water and transport industries provide are prioritising profits for shareholders above longer term infrastructure and public safety. And whilst the oil industry are making vast profits, our government have lost any motivation to ensure that households are properly insulated and saving both energy and reducing bills.
Heating bills could be halved by 2035 if we invested half the annual profits that BP makes in energy efficiency measures.
Where are the Labour Party on this issue?
Last week the Labour Party publicly ditched their previous policy to nationalising the utility industries, with Keir Starmer saying he would take a ‘pragmatic approach not an ideological one’.
Ending private ownership of utilities and our fundamental state infrastructure is very much a pragmatic and necessary step that our next government must take. Because the current system of trusting private companies to run these industries is failing economically, environmentally and politically.
The privatisation experiment has run its course
The Green Party is very clear – the privatisation experiment of the last few decades has run its course and we must look to nationalisation of our utility industries to save households money, invest in infrastructure and protect the environment.
Ending the stranglehold that private industry has on our household bills. That would truly be ‘Taking Back Control’.
Further reading? I recommend the work of We Own It.
