Possible water shortage Leeds/Mossley

[monkeybusiness]

2 hours ago, Steven P said:

Probably have a point with Great British Energy, it is too expensive I reckon for the government to buy back the utilities, so have to do something else.

 

I reckon the only option is a start up and build market share. Can do that with electricity or gas sales, would be just like E.On, UU or Scottish Power, each with an electrical generation division and an electrical / gas retail division. Gas and Electrical transmission would be trickier (big gas pipes and electrical pylons) - they are owned by National Grid and the 'space' the electricity or gas used is 'rented' from them by the retail brands. I believe National Grid charges are kind of set though (they are a monopoly), but you cannot just build a parallel system. Can do the same with BT as well - set up a Great British Phone Company.

 

No reason Great British (whatever) cannot be operated along the lines as they are now, requiring a profit to return to the shareholders and maintaining a minimum standard - the shareholder is the government, all profits could be used to improve our lot or tax reductions (for the very wealthy of course - don't want to get carried away).

 

Can't do that with water though, they were sold off differently - the water companies own the pipes and the systems (which is why we cannot change water suppliers), only thing to do there is a buy back.

Forget buy back - force them to fix the issues, penalise them heavily if/when they don’t, leave them to fold (no bailouts) and then take them back under government control. 

[Steven P]

If they fold though I am thinking the new owner would have to pick up the debts - the receivers will then own all the assets to be sold off to the highest bidders? Still going to cost a fortune either way

[eggsarascal]

On 20/07/2025 at 20:04, Steven P said:

Probably have a point with Great British Energy, it is too expensive I reckon for the government to buy back the utilities, so have to do something else.

 

I reckon the only option is a start up and build market share. Can do that with electricity or gas sales, would be just like E.On, UU or Scottish Power, each with an electrical generation division and an electrical / gas retail division. Gas and Electrical transmission would be trickier (big gas pipes and electrical pylons) - they are owned by National Grid and the 'space' the electricity or gas used is 'rented' from them by the retail brands. I believe National Grid charges are kind of set though (they are a monopoly), but you cannot just build a parallel system. Can do the same with BT as well - set up a Great British Phone Company.

 

No reason Great British (whatever) cannot be operated along the lines as they are now, requiring a profit to return to the shareholders and maintaining a minimum standard - the shareholder is the government, all profits could be used to improve our lot or tax reductions (for the very wealthy of course - don't want to get carried away).

 

Can't do that with water though, they were sold off differently - the water companies own the pipes and the systems (which is why we cannot change water suppliers), only thing to do there is a buy back.

Although I agree, how much would it cost?

 

It's been raped, I don't mean just asset stripped, it's been abused for profit.

 

The infrastructure/network is shot, anyone who works in the water industry will tell you the same.

[Steven P]

How much would it cost to buy back from owners only in it for the ££ ? Hmmm... more than it is worth I suspect.

 

(the pipes and so on are all assets and until they actually break are valuable - even if they need replacing, the buildings, pumps, equipment - they'll all be listed as having a value even if obsolete and need thousands spent to replace... but the cost of replacement will be spread over many years - the balance sheet will be skewed - own loads of stuff, but not much liabilities this year... will be over priced for what needs to be spent I reckon)

[AHPP]

**************** it. Let it impode. We flush toilets with drinking water. We deserve to desiccate.

 

No need to buy it back. Just remove the restrictions that grant the monopoly and send me photos of their crestfallen little faces when they realise they just had seventy million slaves walk out the door.

[Steven P]

I'd be guessing the first part would be to split the pipes away from the water - much like the gas and electric pipes are split out from the energy, split the companies in 2 to allow a type of competition to exist.. and be cheaper to buy back 1 part

[eggsarascal]

Best recycling industry going, treat a natural resource, sell it to us then charge us to treat it again then sell it back to us.

[AHPP]

10 minutes ago, Steven P said:

I'd be guessing the first part would be to split the pipes away from the water - much like the gas and electric pipes are split out from the energy, split the companies in 2 to allow a type of competition to exist.. and be cheaper to buy back 1 part

 

The joy of free markets is you don't need to do anything. However well intentioned, nobody knows how to sort water for everyone. So just back off and it'll sort itself out or it won't. Meanwhile, a factory worker in Falkirk won't be forced to a pay for a pipe to be run to a laird down a dead end track in Caithness.

[AHPP]

I looked at another house with off grid water yesterday. I cannot be free of these parasites quickly enough.

[GarethM]

16 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Meanwhile, a factory worker in Falkirk won't be forced to a pay for a pipe to be run to a laird down a dead end track in Caithness.

Generally speaking, water and sewage pipework is the responsibility of the property owner once it's over the boundary.

 

Whilst they were trying to make that to the property, mainly for the average terrace homeowners where it's just a couple of metres, it wouldn't be for a laird unless it's a new housing estate that's getting adopted.

 

Plus, Scottish water is still state owned isn't it?.

Edited July 23 by GarethM