Tapping out: How privatisation wrecked our waterworks

Thames Water recently announced £14 billion of debt. How does an essential utility haemorrhage so much money? More than three decades after they were privatised, could renationalisation be the solution? Laura Makin-Isherwood is joined by Rob Branston, associate professor in business economics, to discuss how the privatisation of water companies in England has failed and the solutions to clean up our water woes.

• “Privatisation is a political ideology, but we need to remember that in the 80s we didn’t have good water services.”
• “There is a collective debt of £60 billion across our water companies.”
• “The debts have gone up because of interest on the existing debt.”

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Written and presented by Laura Makin-Isherwood. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Assistant producer: Adam Wright. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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