The restructuring of Scottish Water has resulted in an incremental drift towards privatisation
Privatisation would result in a loss of accountability as Ministers pass the buck to a private water company. The charge payer would be forced to pay for the higher costs of borrowing in addition to the cost of dividends and the fat cat salaries of Directors. The corporate financiers, consultants, regulators and others will all gain at the charge payers’ expense.
The Trojan horse for privatisation is mutualisation. In the capital intensive water industry any mutual body would in effect be controlled by the financial institutions.They would insist that to minimise risk to their money, services and jobs would be transferred to English and European private water companies.This is what happens at the only UK mutual model,Welsh Water. Not surprisingly the Conservatives recognise the benefits of this stealth privatisation. More disappointing is that the Liberal Democrats have recently joined them.
Fortunately the public service model still enjoys widespread public support in Scotland including Scottish Labour, Scottish Greens, the SNP and others. There is a growing understanding that not only are water and sewerage services an essential public service but that given the global water crisis, it is one of Scotland’s greatest assets.
This does not mean that we should cling to the status quo. This paper highlights other public service models, most notably in Sweden, that demonstrate that a more democratic structure can deliver a more efficient, socially responsible and accountable public water service.
The water unions and the STUC believe that we can save Scotland’s water from privatisation by turning away from the market model and moving towards democratisation.We set out a number of ways this might be achieved and would welcome views from those who share our vision