There are seemingly no limits to how far this government will crawl into the pockets of the private sector to do them a favour to maximise their profits at taxpayers’ expense.
Greenpeace has just discovered via freedom of information (FOI) rules that a major state subsidy scheme for gas-fired power stations in the UK is being designed by an executive of a gas company — ESB, which owns 3 gas-fired power stations in this country. He has been seconded to work in DECC for 2 years. Continue reading
Did you know that two-thirds of our water companies are owned by foreigners? Does it matter? Well, yes it does. They can major on water supplies in their own home country and neglect the UK arm of their business, they can fail to deal quickly or adequately with leaks in the UK even when it involves foul water, and they can decline to invest in urgently needed new facilities.
The classic example of the latter is Thames Water, owned by the Australian bank Macquarie, which is now demanding that the UK taxpayers shell out £4bn for a new so-called super-sewer, despite having drained off huge profits and imposed fast rising prices since privatisation. Continue reading
