Water privatisation in England has been a disaster - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire.

Water privatisation in England has been a disaster, while in Scotland under public ownership it has been a success with profits re-invested into the business which provides excellent water quality and good customer service.

You write in your editorial (24th) about the cost of renationalisation. Thatcher sold the water industry to private shareholders in 1989, simply as an ideological measure - private good, public bad. The industry was given away for ideological reasons. I have a friend who said that if Thatcher could have worked out a way of privatising air she would have done it. Why pay anything to renationalise it? Just take back control.

In nearly every country in the world the water industry is in public hands, including the USA. Doesn't that tell you something? Ofwat has said that 3bn litres of water are lost in England through leaks. Thames Water is nearly bankrupt with £20bn of debt. Yorkshire Water is £7.5bn in debt but paid £80m to shareholders. And how can this company be called Yorkshire Water when it is owned by Kelda Holdings based in Jersey. It's the same reason that Spanish company Iberola names Scottish Power thus - they want to cover up its foreign ownership.

Since privatisation 35 reservoirs have been sold off, but none built although England will soon experience a water crisis. Renationalisation is vital to avoid that crisis.

The value of the water companies now is zero. Since they are continuing to fail to meet performance targets, and dumping sewage willy-nilly, they should be placed into special measures, their ownership transferred to the state and the shareholders given nothing. They have already taken £85bn from the industry, why give them more?