This article of mine appears over at The Guardian's Comment is Free website.
Neil Clark: The obscene commodification of a natural resource has gone on long enough, ripping off ordinary people
Here we go again. In the past 12 months, we've had significant hikes in our gas and electricity bills (not reversed by recent cuts due to a fall in wholesale prices) and above-inflation increases in train fares – which are already the highest in Europe. Now it's time for the water companies to put the boot in.
Ofwat has announced that average household water and sewerage bills in England and Wales are to increase by an average of 5.7% from April. As in the case with the rail fares, we're told that the reason that prices are rising is to enable more "investment" by the water companies. But a closer inspection is highly revealing.
You can read the whole article here.
3 comments:
Other news released today - a measure of grist for your mill
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2012/01/31/1-billion-investment-for-new-waterways-charity/
Of course I'm not a disinterested party to this do I'll not comment but will be curiously listening - Valerie
Hi Valerie,
Many thanks for that.
As an alternative to renationalisation, what about replacing the corporations with consumer co-operatives?
Consumer Co-ops which can operate independently without being bothered by either greedy shareholders or meddlesome central government.
Regulated as now by OFWAT. Or something similar.
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