The failure of privatisation is laid bare as we move into the new financial year with the reality of paying more, but for the same or — in some instances — worse service.
Energy, rail, water — all of these have been privatised in the last 40 years and we the consumers are paying the price. Our bills are rising, profits are rising and yet the quality of what we receive is poor due to decades of underinvestment in infrastructure. The Thatcher sale of council homes has left us with a deficit of council properties and long waiting lists. Housing cannot meet the demand. In my constituency of Wrexham, one area has 371 people on the housing waiting list and in the last 6 months, 7 vacancies have become available.
Many of us remember the beginnings of privatisation: British Gas in 1986 and electricity in 1990. The objectives of privatisation were to transfer the responsibility and ownership of many industries from the government to the private sector, to end the monopoly of utilities by increasing competition, and to increase the number of shareholders. But since 2021, we have been experiencing an energy crisis which was then worsened by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
And the solution? It’s not a simple or quick one. Change takes time.
The Labour government has started to get to work, but it will take time. And the associated costs have to be balanced with the burden placed on the taxpayer.
We have started on the legislation to begin to fix the huge legacy of issues we have inherited straight away after being elected, with our Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, Railways Bill, Great British Energy Bill and Water Special Measures Bill — all of these set the framework so that work can commence on fixing the mess left behind by the last Tory government. In terms of rail, four major operators — East Coast Mainline, TransPennine, Northern and South Eastern (LNER) — have been taken under public control and are being run by the government’s operator of last resort. Transport for Wales was brought under Welsh government control in 2021, and Scotrail was taken over by the Scottish Government the following year.
But ownership of companies cannot reverse decades of underinvestment and ageing rolling stock. Polls have shown that having transport under public ownership is popular with the public. In January, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham launched the Bee Buses to take on vehicles and depots. This franchising system means private operators run routes on Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM) behalf and this is already paying dividends in terms of improved punctuality. Burnham has plans to bring trains under the same system later this year. Transport is opportunity and for too long rail has failed the people of the UK, again whilst private companies take huge public subsidies and extract more and more wealth from the British people.
What about energy? There are examples out there. Here in Wales, the Anafon Hydro Project in Eryri started in 2010 and began generating in December 2015. It was funded by grants, community shares and a Charity Bank loan. The electricity grid was reorganised to ensure locally generated electricity is accessed by local domestic and business consumers, a truly community-based renewable energy project. The signs are there.
In our manifesto, we said we would deliver permanently cheaper energy bills by the end of the parliament, saving people hundreds of pounds per year. We will tackle the blatant failure of the water companies to invest in our infrastructure (there have been no new reservoirs built since privatisation). And water shortages are now a real possibility due to that — as well as the completely irresponsible polluting of our rivers and coastal waters. All the time whilst shareholders extract more and more from these companies and have increased water bills higher than inflation every year.
We have an ageing population in the UK, which means an exponentially increasing demand on health services in the longer term and more complex illnesses and diseases than in the past. Investment in public services is at its highest level in Wales thanks to the UK government settlement with Welsh government, following years of real term cuts that have left councils cutting social care and other services to the bone.
The world is increasingly uncertain. America’s priorities are changing, and Russia continues to flex its influence. This is being felt by our European neighbours and of course Ukraine. Our armed forces were decimated to low levels by the Conservatives, meaning we are in need of an investment boost, and this cannot be kicked into the long grass.
We need an economy that works for the benefit of all of us in the UK. Living standards have stagnated and were worse at the end of the Tory government than when they started in office. The Labour government is fixing the foundations with changes in employment rights, renters’ rights, more housing and improving public services. But it cannot be fixed overnight, it took the last government 14 years to break everything — we cannot expect, and nor should we, for it to be fixed overnight. We must be realistic and not simplistic.
And as is often the case in life, some things may get worse before they get better.
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Source: Politics
