Would you re-nationalise the energy companies?' poll discussion

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  • silvasava
    silvasava Posts: 4,433
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    edited 1 December 2010 at 2:42PM
    I voted B because C is no longer a realistic option. However - what I would prefer is that all utilities in the UK should be owned/controlled by UK companies. I also think it should be a matter of statute too. We moan about increasing prices but how many of the Gas/Electricity & Water companies are no longer UK owned & the profits & controls go out of the UK.
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  • I've voted 'C' Even though it's never going to happen the idea of voting is to put your 'x' where your belief is.

    I'd just like to add a footnote if I may. I have worked for one of the electricity companies for 30+ years, obviously pre & post privatisation. Although I'm the first to admit that there was plenty of fat in the industry pre privatisation that needed shaving away at least it was managed, & had employees, who knew what they were doing.

    I'm afraid what you have now is an industry designed to make profits for shareholders (of which I am one by the way) with the minimum amount of investment. That has let all the experienced staff leave under very nice redundancy packages. That is run by highly paid managers who, quite frankly, know sod all about the industry. That employs staff (at lower levels) on very low wages who have very little knowledge about what/why they are doing things (& who can blame them for their lack of interest given their salary) And, perversly, they are now companies who have more waste that the pre privatised companies ever had (certainly at Managerial level)

    Does this sound like a rant ? It shouldn't be coming from a person who has done quite nicely from the industry. But it is an honest & frank appraisal of what has/is going on.
  • silvasava wrote: »
    We moan about increasing prices but how many of the Gas/Electricity & Water companies are no longer UK owned & the profits & controls go out of the UK.

    Rather like the debate about Cadbury's being taken over last year, this is a silly point to make. It matters not one jot whether these companies are UK owned. What matters is whether the money received from the foreign purchasers is employed to better purpose than previously. For example, take a company making £100m pa profit that is sold for £1,000m to a foreign buyer and that £1,000m is invested to make a return of £150m pa then the UK is better off by £50m pa.

    I know some posters will reply to the effect 'what about all the lost jobs?' but that too is to be sought after (with the caveat that it is government's responsibility to create an economy that creates new jobs). Ditching defunct jobs (coalmining, steelmaking, shipbuilding) and replacing them with higher value added jobs helps to fund a better NHS etc.
  • stevemoore wrote: »
    Utilities and transport should be owned by the people

    May I assume you are too young to remember the vastly higher tax rates of the 1960s and 1970s that were set in order to fund the atrociously inefficient state-run basket cases like steel, rail, coal and, yes, electricity?
  • webwiz
    webwiz Posts: 215
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    I can only assume that all those voting for renationalisation are under 40, or otherwise cannot remember the bad old days of nationalised utilities. Want a phone? Wait a year. Want to phone British Gas? Be prepared to hold on for hours. The cost of phones and phoning has plummeted. The cost of gas and electricity has gone up because the cost of the raw material has gone up but prices are lower than they would be if the utilities were run for the benefit of the employees rather than the customers as used to be the case.
  • marleyboy
    marleyboy Posts: 16,698
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    edited 1 December 2010 at 10:03PM
    I would vote "C" although we all know this will never happen, I find it ironic that the governments sold off all of our "publicly" paid assets, from fuel to transport, which only served to cripple each and every one of them, and now they are sniffing the housing sector for more.

    Oh and I AM over 40! ;)
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  • marleyboy wrote: »
    I find it ironic that the governments sold off all of our "publicly" paid assets, from fuel to transport, which only served to cripple each and every one of them

    Oh and I AM over 40! ;)

    I call it good financial sense for the government to stop pouring hundreds of millions of our money down the drain.

    I assume your wink means you weren't quite all there at the time, if you get my drift.
  • I call it good financial sense for the government to stop pouring hundreds of millions of our money down the drain.
    Do you mean like with rail subsidies for the privatised rail franchises?
    - GL
  • Yes, Gareth.
  • If we are fortunate enough to ever get a decent Government, they could take on the Power Company monopoly by setting up a Government backed energy company which would make minimum profit only to cover running costs.Gas and Electricity at a realistic price for everyone.
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