Water, water everywhere.....
I know someone who used to make a living dabbling in the stock market. His policy was simple he bought and sold UK utility companies’ shares.
Mainly water ones, on the grounds that they were so badly regulated that they paid not only great dividends but also their shares usually soared as well.
That a capital intensive, monopoly supplier of an irreplaceable product is anything but a safe bet is obvious, but it shouldn’t be a never ending money pot.
It is a sure sign that the industry is not just under regulated but that it has captured its regulator.
Any sensible politician should be firing regulator’s, demanding investment, and asking why: water companies are borrowing money at non-market rates, haven’t built a reservoir in years, lose 25% of their product, dump sewage in rivers and can still make billions.
This is not just a matter of keeping water flowing, although why that should be an issue in this green and pleasant land is a scandal in itself. It is essential in a modern economy to have safe, reliable and reasonably priced utilities.
Many countries with higher tax rates and less flexible economies than the UK have the huge advantage of steady reliable, and reasonably priced utilities and they know what they will be paying for them for years to come.
We have concentrated on what higher energy price caps will mean for millions of households but remember industry and business use water, gas and electricity in huge amounts and pay through the nose for it.
If you privatise monopolies you have to regulate them to within an inch of their life, or they will stitch up the market and milk their customers, while paying lobbyists and PR types to lie to you.
Guess where the UK is now?
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.