National News Rishi Sunak

Sheik djibouti said:
Who knew 🤷‍♂️

Whilst the rivers may be full of shite, look on the bright side . . .at least everyone's pension funds are healthy!

Sorry, I meant at least everyone's pension fund were healthy . . . .

Good to see Australian Bank Macquarie took a massive £1.26 billion in dividends and interest from Thames water between 2008 - 2017 as the debts were spiraling . . .
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Absolutely despicable that such a company still exists. The case for public ownership of the water companies is overwhelming
 
And Water Companies don't care what their actions look like or reading the room considering United Utilities have paid out a record dividend of £301m. Yet revenue and profit dropped, with profit falling by over 40% to £256m

And then chuck in below with the many the other overflows of sewage etc:

www.bbc.co.uk

Coogan joins protest over United Utilities' Windermere pollution

The star joins protestors calling on United Utilities to stop paying shareholders record dividends.
www.bbc.co.uk

Yet the spokesman arrogantly suggesting it is only £2 a month increase for bill payers.

And they aren't the only ones with Severn Water announcing increased dividends of £261m.

Yet both will expect increased bills to pay for the infrastructure investment.
 
Marked Ox said:
And Water Companies don't care what their actions look like or reading the room considering United Utilities have paid out a record dividend of £301m. Yet revenue and profit dropped, with profit falling by over 40% to £256m

And then chuck in below with the many the other overflows of sewage etc:

www.bbc.co.uk

Coogan joins protest over United Utilities' Windermere pollution

The star joins protestors calling on United Utilities to stop paying shareholders record dividends.
www.bbc.co.uk

Yet the spokesman arrogantly suggesting it is only £2 a month increase for bill payers.

And they aren't the only ones with Severn Water announcing increased dividends of £261m.

Yet both will expect increased bills to pay for the infrastructure investment.
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This is the trouble when private businesses are in charge of public services.

I spoke to a councillor late last year due to reoccurring road repairs on the same stretch of road which were regularly over-running. It was down to 'gas repairs' every time. He told me they were being fined for every day that the repairs went over schedule, but it was pretty much pointless because the cost of those fines are entirely cancelled out by price increases.

These businesses don't care, because they know any come back from their awful practices (fines etc) will just be recouped by increasing the price for customers - they're inconveniencing us, then making us pay (quite literally) for any consequence of that. We take a double hit.
 
MustardYellow said:
This is the trouble when private businesses are in charge of public services.

I spoke to a councillor late last year due to reoccurring road repairs on the same stretch of road which were regularly over-running. It was down to 'gas repairs' every time. He told me they were being fined for every day that the repairs went over schedule, but it was pretty much pointless because the cost of those fines are entirely cancelled out by price increases.

These businesses don't care, because they know any come back from their awful practices (fines etc) will just be recouped by increasing the price for customers - they're inconveniencing us, then making us pay (quite literally) for any consequence of that. We take a double hit.
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The repairing of roads after Utility companies do their work used to be done by Councils and they charged the companies. Generally repairs then used to be to a decent standard. It got changed way back (can't remember if it was under Thatcher, Major or Blair) to the companies doing their own work with little oversight or threat (even with fines) so unsurprisingly quality has progressively got worse. Councils also lost the ability to manage when such works happened so rather than one lot of work, you get multiple periods of roadworks such as on the road between Drayton and Sutton Courtenay which seems to be in permanent roadworks over the last 18 months.

Councils have for many years campaigned to get these powers back but Central Govt have refused.

Not all potholes are due to the utility companies but plenty of them are though.
 
Marked Ox said:
The repairing of roads after Utility companies do their work used to be done by Councils and they charged the companies. Generally repairs then used to be to a decent standard. It got changed way back (can't remember if it was under Thatcher, Major or Blair) to the companies doing their own work with little oversight or threat (even with fines) so unsurprisingly quality has progressively got worse. Councils also lost the ability to manage when such works happened so rather than one lot of work, you get multiple periods of roadworks such as on the road between Drayton and Sutton Courtenay which seems to be in permanent roadworks over the last 18 months.

Councils have for many years campaigned to get these powers back but Central Govt have refused.

Not all potholes are due to the utility companies but plenty of them are though.
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They're essentially just s**t with total impunity.

I reckon I see people actually working when roads/sections of roads are closed 20% of the time. Why is it not a legal requirement that work is carried out 24/7 till the job is done?

I curse those who work on our roads on a daily basis.
 
*Cough*

www.gov.uk

New street works regime to clamp down on pothole pain

Regulations to inspect utility company street works and assess quality of their road repairs.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

Utility companies got the responsibility to repair under John Major in 1991 - since then neither Labour or others have done anything about the issues we all face, until now.

Ergo there is about 33 years of cark to put right!
 
Essexyellows said:
*Cough*

www.gov.uk

New street works regime to clamp down on pothole pain

Regulations to inspect utility company street works and assess quality of their road repairs.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

Utility companies got the responsibility to repair under John Major in 1991 - since then neither Labour or others have done anything about the issues we all face, until now.

Ergo there is about 33 years of cark to put right!
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Yep, both Tories and Labour at fault on this.
 
Scotland has such a good model on this and it’s worth noting what their process was. They took the decision that rather than patch potholes they’d spend the money and get stretches of road properly re done. They have a much better network of road quality now and far less repairs needed. Ultimately it’s turned out cheaper over a decade.
 
Marston Road yellow said:
Scotland has such a good model on this and it’s worth noting what their process was. They took the decision that rather than patch potholes they’d spend the money and get stretches of road properly re done. They have a much better network of road quality now and far less repairs needed. Ultimately it’s turned out cheaper over a decade.
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Hang on. What magic are you talking about here? Actual long-term thinking? It will never catch on.
 
Marston Road yellow said:
Scotland has such a good model on this and it’s worth noting what their process was. They took the decision that rather than patch potholes they’d spend the money and get stretches of road properly re done. They have a much better network of road quality now and far less repairs needed. Ultimately it’s turned out cheaper over a decade.
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Sorry but you haven't explained how Tory government backers make money out of this. Go back to the start.
 
Marston Road yellow said:
Scotland has such a good model on this and it’s worth noting what their process was. They took the decision that rather than patch potholes they’d spend the money and get stretches of road properly re done. They have a much better network of road quality now and far less repairs needed. Ultimately it’s turned out cheaper over a decade.
Click to expand...

A decade doesn`t fit with the political cycle locally or nationally - rinse & repeat

QR said:
Sorry but you haven't explained how Tory government backers make money out of this. Go back to the start.
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I`m sure the SNP can give Westminster plenty of lessons on diverting money................. :)
 
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