UTILITY WEEK | 1ST - 7TH FEBRUARY 2019 |
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increased from 95 per cent in 1990 to 99.99
per cent today.
This improved service has achieved been
off the back of £100 billion-worth of invest-
ment in upgrading and expanding infra-
structure, which represents a 50 per cent
increase on pre-privatisation levels.
And there are big question marks over
how feasible it will be to restore public own-
ership over utilities.
A Greenwich University paper published
in 2017, which has heavily influenced Labour
thinking, estimated that restoring public
ownership over the water industry could be
achieved for as little as £2.3 billion. This was
based on the book value of the water com-
panies minus the public subsidies they have
received since privatisation, including hav-
ing their debts written off.
However, the Social Market Foundation's
Corfe disputes this figure. "The idea that pay-
ing below market price is a free lunch is non-
sense. There are losers from that policy who
haven't been accounted for," he says.
He points out that all of the listed water
companies have employee share schemes,
which would be out of pocket if this cut-
nation of private ownership and regulation
has saved the average household £120 a year
on its water bill.
Networks
Similar benefits can be seen on the energy
networks.
Colin Nicol, managing director of SSE
Networks, told the recent Utility Week Con-
gress in Birmingham that the average cus-
tomer is now 50 per cent less likely to suffer
a power cut than in 2002. And when supplies
are cut off they are likely to be restored much
more quickly with overall reliability having continued overleaf
