"hugh" ] wrote in message
...
In message , Doghouse Riley
writes

echinosum;951771 Wrote:
Wales just has a lot of water, as in general does the western parts of
the country, so there is less to be said for metering, etc, there. S
Wales suffered especially badly in 1976, but I think the money has been
spent to connect S Wales consumers to nearby resources since then. Your
bills may not have gone up so much recently, but they are still fairly
high in comparison to most of the rest of us. It is probably related to
the history of the timing of investments. I think the highest bills are
in the SW of England, where the topography and distribution of the
population results in much more pipe in the ground per person than any
other part of the country.

Not for profit companies certainly mean that the political inconvenience
of profit observed to be paid out to shareholders doesn't exist.
Whether this actually reduces total cost is another matter. In general
industry without a profit motive has in the long run proved to be
inefficient, though it does not always have to be the case.

I'm still not convinced by a lot of the arguments. My water rates are
about fifty percent of my community charge, at one time it was just
fraction of it and we didn't have hosepipe bans.

Well demand has probably gone up as population increases and usage per
person has probably gone up too with auto washing machines car washing
etc. Meanwhile supply in the form of reservoir capacity has probably
remained the same. We could of course flood another Welsh valley to get
round that.
A lot of money is being made out of water by utility companies since
privatisation, many of them foreign owned.
Successive governments and these firms have had time enough to resolve
the problem.




Much of the water infrastructure consists of old Victorian cast iron pipe.
These are now very brittle and break relatively easily. There is constant
investment in new replacement pipes which will pay off in the long run.
This capital has to be raised some how either by offering private
investors a reasonable return or by extra taxes or water charges.
Provided an unhealthy monopoly situation doesn't develop then as a general
rule the private company will deliver a better return to the customer even
after allowing for dividends.
--
hugh


Sounds as if you are an executive of Southern Water.
Get a good bonus this year did you? ................................ and who
do you think paid for it?

Mike


--

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I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

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