Comment on Who owns Britain? The effects of privatisation on the costs of living in the UK
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I’m glad that the government has nationalised rail and is continuing to work to tie all these previous companies together, I’m glad about some of our steel industry being nationalised too, as well as some of our energy sector with Great British Energy. The government is making solid moved here that seems to be ignored by the media.
But there are some things, like water, that still needs to be nationalised.
Now I’m no fool, I know nationalising water right now would cost hundreds of billions, that it would drive the cost of borrowing even higher than it already is, and we simply cannot afford it. I also know that simply forcibly nationalising them with no compensation would spook the markets and trigger foreign investment to plummet - there’s a reason actions like that are typically only taken by banana republics.
But, as I understand it, the government is legally the operator of last resort for these water companies. In other words, if they go bust and another buyer is not found (which would be unlikely to happen if the government makes clear that no further public bailouts will occur), the government steps in and takes control. Perhaps this is a way for the government to step in without borrowing hundreds of billions? I’m not certain, I’m not a legal expert.
If that’s indeed how it works, I’d hope this is the plan.
I suspect water could be nationalised. You just make a compulsory purchase order, based on the value of the companies, and it would be very easy to say that the value of the companies is effectively nil. They’ve got debts and obligations that outstrip their income.
We could also raise the billions needed to put in the infrastructure fairly easily with a rejig of tax structure and by upping HMRCs budget
They only partially nationalised rail, the rolling stock leasing companies (the most profitable part) are still private.
Indeed. But it’d be very expensive to buy them out. It seems likely to me they’ll continue with existing contracts, then phase them out in the medium/long term.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the primary reason trains are leased rather than bought outright in the first place is that private rail operators don’t know with certainty that they’ll still be the operator in 5 years when the contract comes back up for renewal.
Virgin Trains (or whoever) isn’t going to buy trains outright knowing their contract is up for renewal in 0-5 years and there’s a chance they’ll be left without a rail franchise contract and in ownership of a load of trains that cost them a fortune, now sitting unused.
With the government running all trains, there’s long term certainty – the government knows that in 5 years, Great British Rail will still be the ones running services, so buying rather than leasing will make a lot more financial sense.
Wait. The rail and steel are being nationalised? I’ve heard nothing of this.
rail
Yup. It’s not happening all at once, because different train operators have contracts that expire at different times – the government is simply letting the contracts expire then taking over, so that they don’t have to pay the operators anything to take over.
By 2027, this will be complete, but many rail operators already are publicly owned - the LNER service I regularly use, for example, is.
The plan is to unite them under the umbrella of GBR (Great British Railways), which will oversee the usual rail operator stuff, as well as rail infrastructure. I’m pretty excited about it.
The government has some more info here:
…parliament.uk/when-will-my-local-train-operator-…
steel
I should be clear, it’s not all steel. I’m referring to the company British Steel, which has the last UK plant able to make virgin steel, which is used in construction, mainly buildings and rail.
It was owned by China, but China was going to deliberately shut the plant down. To be clear: that would be disastrous. Shutting down a steel plant causes irreversible damage to the equipment. You literally cannot start it up again, you’d have to rebuild all the furnaces.
The government took it over in spring/summer time.
British steel hasn’t been nationalised, the Government just took over its operations, the Chinese parent company still owns it.
I remember all the hubbub about the steel but I had heard nothing about rail. Thats excellent news. All i hear is the bad news going on in the UK, for some reason.
The railways were effectively nationalised in 2020. They’re just handing the contracts back at this point.
I work away for long periods at a time. I did hear about the steel but not its resolution.
How? Yes they are being nationalized.
kip@piefed.zip 6 months ago
a hundred billion or so is the government’s own line. other more believable opinions suggest this is bollocks
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/09/water-companies-public-ownership-could-cost-close-to-zero-says-common-wealth-thinktank
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06/27/how-much-would-it-really-cost-to-nationalise-water
https://weownit.org.uk/news/government-100-billion-water-nationalisation
HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 6 months ago
Based entirely on the water companies claims.
The gov has not even bothered to audit and value the companies themselves. But just used the corps own valuations.
The whole idea that the companies have any value given their debt and failures to maintain infrastructure even with that debt. Is just out right scummy bollocks.