It’s repellent to see British Gas shooting prices up today, with the expectation that the consumers – often people who can least afford even a tiny rise in prices – are expected to foot the bill for business failures. In Britain we pay more for gas than mainland Europe.
At the same time it’s surely morally wrong to be doling out money to shareholders. It often seems the utilities are the only industries where this kind of behaviour happens on such a scale and yet goes unchecked.
On a smaller scale, in my ward Thames Water appears to be intent on tipping any remaining goodwill literally down the drain. I’ve had an eleventh hour email from a “Community Liaison Executive” giving me a few days notice that Thames Water is planning to do something major in one of the busiest roads in the ward, Eardley Road. They tell me, in blandese, that they will be “tackling leakage, replacing the Victorian water pipes and finding and fixing leaks. We are also changing the way we manage the complex network of pipes that deliver water to your taps.” This will apparently cause inconvenience, which I take to mean they will be ploughing up the road, though they don’t say so.
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Maxine Foster said,
Maida Vale
Wed, 9 Aug 2006 - 4:13 PM
Couldn't agree more. And as for Thames Water - give me strength!
Maxine
Angelina Marriott said,
essex
Thu, 3 Aug 2006 - 7:28 PM
If British Gas had not been privatised, it would not be doling out money to shareholders. We are now paying the price for the sale of national assets. The theory of it creating competition and inturn improving service and keeping prices down has proved to be untrue.
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About Me
- Councillor Mark Bennett
- I was re-elected as a Lambeth Labour councillor in May 2006, following a by-election win in October 2005. I'm 39 and represent Streatham South ward, together with two Labour colleagues. Labour regained control of Lambeth in May, after four years in opposition to a Lib Dem Tory alliance. After two years as Cabinet Member for Safer Communities in the Labour administration, I spent a year as Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport. I'm now Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities. I've lived in Streatham for ten years and I'm proud of my family's roots in London and the South East. I'm also a governor of Dunraven School in Streatham. I joined the Labour Party in the early 1990s, when John Smith was leader, and I was a student in Stoke on Trent.
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