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...The prospect that Thames Water may face temporary renationalisation has put the utilities in the public and political spotlight....
...public-sector pension funds....
...The Consumer Council for Water, a public body representing consumers, said that while it supported the installation of smart meters, it agreed they “wouldn’t deliver the demand reduction required”....
...A period of temporary public stewardship is generally framed as a worst-case scenario in discussions about the future of Britain’s biggest privatised water utility....
...There are good reasons for the world-beating performance of some public sector utilities....
...Once Thames Water is in administration, the government can then do a public share offering to Thames Water customers, inviting them to subscribe for shares, to own their own utility....
...“Water giants have failed in their responsibilities to the public while lining their own pockets. Now they are asking for bill payers to take the hit for their failings.”...
...That faced public opprobrium over safety issues and was eventually taken into special administration in 2002....
...Further reading:— Seven common misconceptions about the Thames Water crisis (FTAV)— Fix your UK water utility with this one simple trick (FTAV)— Let Thames Water die to teach everyone a lesson, says Citi...
...Shouting matches between utility companies and regulators are common in the UK....
...And then there is the public relations problem....
...Now the question is whether Thames, with its labyrinthine structure and debt load of £18.3bn, can avoid collapsing into public hands....
...By 2006, when the Australian asset management firm Macquarie bought Thames Water from the Germany utility group RWE, the water company had £3.4bn in debt....
...It faces a public outcry over sewage....
...Investors have demanded scope to increase bills and loosen rules over paying dividends, despite public anger over sewage discharges and the service record of the privatised utility....
...The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to convene an urgent meeting to assess the impact of water effluent on public health....
...He added there were lessons to be learnt from the travails of public sector monopolies such as water companies....
...“One read of [Buffett’s] letter is they’re not going to put money into utilities besides the ones they own and potentially cause [PacifiCorp] be turned over to the public or be put into bankruptcy,” one...
...In a 2022 podcast, its energy and climate director Michael Terrell said the company had engaged regulators at local public utilities commissions, showing up to the scantily-attended meetings where crucial...
...Get Thames Water right and the case for private ownership of utilities will be enhanced....
...Schröder said he wanted 1Komma5 to be ready for a public listing next year....
...But to date, he acknowledges, state-owned companies and public utilities in the US and Europe have not been leaders on decarbonisation....
...It has meanwhile become a lightning rod for public anger over sewage pollution and mistrust of England’s privatised water system....
...With water leaks and sewage spills rising, public discontent is understandable. The water companies were, after all, privatised with zero debt, selling a basic necessity to a captive market....
...But it creates further uncertainty for a business that supplies a quarter of the UK’s population and has become a political flashpoint because of public anger over sewage discharges and its service record...
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