Muck makes money
The water industry is in crisis, like the rest of capitalism. Water quality targets are missed, companies are heavily in debt, infrastructure needs investment. But profits and dividends are up...
Privatisation
Privatisation
Rising water bills condemned
19 December 2024
Water bills will rise by more than one-third over the next five years, much of it in 2025. The regulator, Ofwat, previously said that that the price rises would far less. Unions and campaign groups have condemned the move.
Step forward water industry workers
15 April 2024
Britain’s largest privatised water company is in financial trouble, as are others. This threatens the supply and safety of our water. It need not be that way.
End privatisation, says RMT [print version]
US private equity firm, I Squared Capital, has bought bus and rail operator Arriva in a deal worth about $1.69 billion, including debts.
Muck and money
Britain’s regulators are supposed to provide safeguards for the public. Their record is woeful…
Map reveals scale of sewage dumping...in real time
7 January 2023
After growing pressure from campaigners and the public, England’s biggest water company has created what it calls a “near real-time” interactive map – showing the scale of its sewage dumping.
Financial distortions in the NHS
22 July 2021
Two years after the event, it has taken a court order to reveal that NHS trust lost over £360,000 through the cancellation of a music festival. It’s a symptom of much that is wrong within the NHS
Poll finds support for public services
11 March 2020
A new poll conducted by Survation has found that voters believe that the privatisation of public services as increased regional inequality and harmed “left behind” parts of the country.
The costly failure of privatised water
30 July 2019
With hosepipe bans and water restrictions being imposed once again, calls for nationalisation of water are growing.
How privatisation is pushing rail to the brink
As most of the rail unions know, the future of their industry is intimately bound up with Brexit. Only independence from the EU can provide the freedom to run our railways in the national interest…
Stop the rail sell-offs!
Even the government admits the rail system is a mess. Its solution could make matters worse…
The EU's hand in the privatisation of rail
The fragmentation of Britain’s railways has its roots in an EEC directive (91/440/EEC) handed down in 1991. This directive decreed the separation of infrastructure from train operations, with the express purpose of creating a competitive market. It was the blueprint used by John Major for the Conservative government’s privatisation of Britain’s railways from 1994 to 1996.
Prisons out of control
21 August 2018
Birmingham Prison is back under government control, but the crisis in our prisons appears general and affects ones still in public control.
Foreign firms line up to plunder rail network
As parts of the rail network fail and the government’s Whitehall farce leads to ever more absurdities, the campaign to bring railways back into public ownership is gathering momentum around Britain…
Public service, private chaos
Over 20,000 workers are finding themselves in the role of sacrificial lambs on the altar of the private provision of public services following the collapse of Carillion.
Carillion: over the precipice
15 January 2018
Carillion the construction and facilities management services company has collapsed into liquidation, as we predicted in October 2017. This is a failure of the “free” market and capitalist dogma: its workers and those who use its services will suffer.
Privateers survive by state subsidies
27 October 2017
The Carillion construction and outsourcing giant is not alone in crisis. Other major privatisation and outsourcing companies – Mitie, Interserve Capita – now also face a perilous situation of their own making,
Capitalism's railway carousel
The capitalist carousel that now typifies Britain’s railways continues as London Midland loses the franchise to operate routes across the region’s network.
Capitalist rail carousel continues
10 August 2017
The capitalist carousel that now typifies Britain’s railways continues as London Midland loses the franchise to operate routes across the region’s network.
Honour and dishonour at Woolwich ferry
10 July 2017
It is honourable that a new Woolwich ferries will be named after Ben Woollacott, the 19-year-old deckhand killed in a mooring accident in 2011 – but other factors associated with the new ferry are less so.
Cleaning workers take on outsourcing giant
23 February 2017
Cleaners at King’s College London have been offered higher staffing levels after going on strike over excessive workload and a threat of reorganisation.
Rail: Shovelling money abroad
Last year more than £90 million was paid out in dividends to the mainly state-owned Italian, French, Dutch and German rail companies running British rail franchises.
Glasgow privatisation plans in turmoil
12 February 2017
Successful strikes by IT workers at Glasgow City Council have halted the attempt to privatise £400 million worth of services.
Prisons hit new lows
26 January 2017
Britain’s largely privatised prison service has reached yet further landmarks of decline with the number of suicides – and the prison population – at record levels.
New Year protest against fare rises
3 January 2017
Rail unions and passenger groups are kicking off the new year with two days of protests against high fares.
Contractor seeks cleaning redundancies at hospital hit by norovirus
31 December 2016
A week after private provider ISS secured acontract at a Kent hospital, it proposed making 30 cleaners redundant – despite a history of norovirus outbreaks at the hospital.
RMT wins battle for safety and jobs in Scotland – Southern dispute becomes more bitter
11 October 2016
RMT Scotrail members have a victory in their fight for safety. Those working on Southern face the same problem, but their employer has escalted the dispute.
'Almighty mess' of NHS privatisation
11 July 2016
The NHS’s Primary Care Support Services were privatised in April, transferred to multinational profit-sucker Capita, along with over a thousand workers – and things have not gone well.
Rail company declares war on staff
4 June 2016
Britain’s biggest rail franchise company, Govia Thameslink Railway, has launched an all-out war on its staff. Now the High Court has entered the fray, barring drivers’ union ASLEF from taking industrial action.
Private ambulance chaos
Patients relying on Sussex ambulances for transport to and from appointments have been left stranded after the contract went to a private company.