There are many reasons why nationalising Thames Water would be a bad idea. Long gone are the days when governments had the competence to run major companies. The current examples are mostly dire. Nationalisation of the railways resulted in immediately conceding to the rail unions’ pay demands and freezing prices. CalMac, Scotland’s ferry company, is [ ] The post Nationalising water the Thames…
It’s very hard to know how close the electricity system recently got to a blackout. Probably not that close, but it’s also hard to know how good NESO (the National Energy System Operator) is at forecasting future demands, and even harder to know whether a system grounded on intermittent small-scale and geographically dispersed wind turbines [ ] The post NESO – an accident waiting to happen…
Following on from the latest change of Prime Minister and announcements about his new Cabinet, what is going to change? Andy Burnham has a new ten-year plan, and is promising a fundamental revision of politics, but Britain’s deeper economic problems remain unresolved. The fact is, underneath the headlines, the country is still trying to live [ ] The post Podcast 93: Some new faces, same old…
Following on from OFWAT’s 55% indicative preferred gearing, signals from DEFRA are that it would like to make this a legally binding upper limit. At first glance this sounds like a good idea. It would prevent the sorts of gearing that have got Thames Water into trouble and which might yet bring others down in [ ] The post How much debt should a water company take on? appeared first on Dieter Helm…
Climate policy must be judged not by good intentions, but by its real-world costs, impacts and global effectiveness. Renewables alone cannot deliver cheap, secure and clean energy. The wider costs of electricity systems, storage, back-up power and networks also need to be taken into account. The UK’s choices need to be seen in the international [ ] The post Podcast 92: Hotter days appeared first…
With the renewed political enthusiasm for nationalisation, what, in practical terms, does it mean and what would actually change? How might “Manchesterism” apply in practice? Using buses, rail, water and electricity as examples, in this podcast I argue that public ownership and public control are not the same thing, and that different sectors require different [ ] The post Podcast 91: Beyond the…
Origins and context The regulated asset base (RAB) was brought in after privatisations. When the initial prices to customers were set, they were essentially based upon what current pre-privatisation charges had been, in some cases juiced up to attract more investor interest and a higher value at privatisation. These initial prices, carried across to the [ ] The post The regulated asset base – the…
Politicians have been seeking for decades to put right the infrastructure crisis in this country that is rooted not in a lack of ambition, but in deeper economic and political constraints. Building in Britain is exceptionally costly, with high energy prices, high labour costs and high financing costs making major projects difficult to deliver at [ ] The post Podcast 90: Why can t we build…
The water industry in England and Wales has been the subject of some awful performance politics. First, give the water company executives a good kicking. Let the public think that failures will lead to directors being locked up. Put the blame on them. Next, give OFWAT a good kicking too. Say it’s a failed regulator [ ] The post Performance politics and the Thames Water scandal appeared first on…
1. Where we are Ed Miliband and Boris Johnson have a lot in common when it comes to energy. Johnson asserted in a government document that the leaders of Russia and China would be looking to Britain’s energy policies so that they could learn how to emulate us.[1] Miliband presumably shares this view on the [ ] The post The cost of energy and what to do about it appeared first on Dieter Helm .