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136

Water firms ask for bill rises of between 24% and 91% (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 7 months ago by Mex@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You pass legislation to make the company unprofitable by making it fulfill it’s obligation to invest in infrastructure to the point where the funds run for the hills.

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

so the shareholders pull their funds, the water companies struggle and the taxpayer has to step in to bail them out.

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Bail them out? Nah, make it publicly owned.

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

yes that would be awesome, but the problem is that “make it publicly owned” means “buy out their shares” which is giving them a bailout, plus “service all the debt the company is in” which is another bailout, before you’ve even got started with fixing the horrible lack of investment over many years

[–] ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Buying the shares is cheap if the company is worth nothing /goes bankrupt from fines for their environmental breaches

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

I’d be happy if that happened.

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

but the problem is that “make it publicly owned” means “buy out their shares” which is giving them a bailout

The shares would be almost worthless.

plus “service all the debt the company is in” which is another bailout

Nope, the company would be wound up.