The entire water and waste sector was privatized 34 years ago under the Conservative government of the late Margaret Thatcher for 7.6 billion pounds sterling. At the time, Ms. Thatcher has struck the debt of 5 billion pounds in the industry, leaving companies a clean slate and gave them 1.5 billion sterling in public silver to companies.
The government wanted to privatize the industry in 1984, but a public reaction against the plan saw it aside after the general elections three years later. At the time, the United Kingdom was under the pressure of Europe to improve the purity of its water.
However, complying with European standards would cost billions of investment pounds which, hoped for, would come from the private sector and, by extension, from business customers.
“If we want an environmental improvement, it will cost money,” said Thatcher in 1988. “It will be the people who want these improvements in the water who will have to pay.”
The former work deputy Ann Taylor said later about the privatization of the water industry: “The message is still the same – maximize the cost for the consumer to guarantee maximum return to the investor. We must not be surprised by this. After all, this is what private investors expect their businesses.”
