From BBC Business a few hours ago:
Water companies in England and Wales want bills to increase by £156 a year by 2030 to pay for upgrades and reduce sewage discharges.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66979271
In response from the SNP:
The SNP has said “independence is the only way to guarantee key services are safe in public hands” – as privatised water companies in England and Wales seek to increase bills by £156 a year.
Responding to the news, SNP Energy spokesperson Dave Doogan MP warned “families in England and Wales are paying an eye-watering price for failing services under Westminster control” and challenged Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to “stop privatising key services and instead follow Scotland’s lead by putting water back in public hands”.
House of Commons Library analysis, commissioned by the SNP, shows households in England and Wales are already paying almost 10% more for water and sewerage bills than those in Scotland, at £448 per year compared to around £410 in Scotland as of 2023/24.
The analysis reveals this money is being used to fund billions of pounds in dividends for private shareholders. Privatised water companies in England and Wales paid out at least £32.7billion in dividends to shareholders between 2002/03 and 2021/22. In contrast, Scottish Water is publicly owned and therefore paid no dividends at all to shareholders.
The higher bills are also being used to fund significantly higher salaries for the CEOs of privatised water companies. On average, privatised water company bosses in England and Wales were paid £1.48 million a year in 2021/22 – around three and a half times the pay of Scottish Water’s CEO at £425,000. The data shows the CEO of Severn Trent Water Limited was paid £3.9million in 2021/22 – more than nine times the salary of Scottish Water’s CEO.
It comes after Keir Starmer U-turned on his leadership election pledge to nationalise water companies. The Labour Party leader has also broken pledges on the two-child cap, rent controls, tuition fees, free school meals, public sector pay, freedom of movement, progressive taxation, electoral reform, reform of the House of Lords, devolution, and Scotland’s right to choose its own future.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The Scottish Labour Project Fear (continuing) narrative is that in the event of independence, because according to GERS, Scotland is subsidised to the tune of £10billion (or whatever arbitrary big number you want), then post independence, we will have to impose austerity and to meet the EU criteria we will have to privatise public assets like SCOTTISH WATER!
So, we are Better Together, when we can have the UK privatise Scottish Water under the pretext of the Single Market Act.
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Michael Shanks – remember him , he’s the actual candidate for the Labour Party
( sic ) – has he been allowed to speak since he claimed to be opposed to Sir Kid Starver’s Two-Child Benefit U-turn ?
If Labour ( sic ) win this by-election , who will give the speech for the candidate – it certainly won’t be him , unless he has Sir Kid Starver’s hand up his a*se moving his lips to make all the right noises !
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O/T Whilst on the theme of cross UK comparisons, I recently came across a report from the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TA) which examined what it referred to as the ‘burden’ of Council Tax (CT) in England, Scotland and Wales.
(This Tufton Street-based organisation is not one I’ve ever referred to before – at least not positively – but, usefully in this instance, it’s a source likely to seen as credible not just by Tories but nowadays probably also by the leadership of a rightward leaning Labour Party!)
See: McGoldrick, C, (August 2023) Britain’s council tax burdens. (https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/britains_council_tax_burdens_2023 )
The TA compiled a database of 2023-24 Band D CT rates in 325 Local Authorities across GB. (It missed out three in Scotland but adding their CT rates was done from Local Authority websites.)
When the 2023-24 Band D amounts charged by Local Authorities (LAs) across Great Britain are ranked from lowest to highest, SCOTLAND’S 32 LAs ALL FALL WITHIN THE 36 LOWEST RATES BEING CHARGED ANYWHERE – the other four LAs in the group of 36 are London boroughs. All Band D rates in Scotland are lower than the lowest rate Band D rate in Labour-controlled Wales.
For interest, the 2023-24 Band D Council Tax payment levied on households in the constituency of Rutherglen and Hamilton West is presently THE FIFTH LOWEST OF ANY LOCAL AUTHORITY AREA IN GREAT BRITAIN – of the four areas lower, two are in Scotland and two are London boroughs.
However, just comparing Band D CT rates in the different nations is complicated by for example different property values, different values at Band boundaries, variations in rates of pay and therefore affordability. Acknowledging these factors, the TA compiled for 325 LAs the BAND D CT RATES AS A PERCENTAGE OF MEDIAN ANNUAL GROSS PAY based on official statistics. (Band D is the benchmark rate against which all others are set by calculation using an assigned multiplier.)
The TA uses this metric to ascertain relative affordability across Great Britain. The lower the percentage, the more affordable – the less of a ‘burden’ in the TA’s terms – on average CT is likely to be. (Of course other mitigations are used to help struggling households with CT payments.)
The TA’s data reveal that Band D rates as a percentage of median annual gross pay in SCOTLAND’S LAs FALL WITHIN THE LOWEST 40 OUT OF 325 LAs ACROSS GREAT BRITAIN. The TA’s data for Scotland’s LAs reveal they have a LOWER PERCENTAGE THAN ANY IN WALES BAR ONE, the case where Scotland’s highest percentage is equal to the lowest equivalent value in Wales.
In South Lanarkshire – the metric relevant to voters in the upcoming by-election – the current Band D CT rate is 4.62% of median annual gross pay. THIS IS THE FOURTH LOWEST PERCENTAGE IN SCOTLAND AND THE NINTH LOWEST OF ANY LA ACROSS GREAT BRITAIN. This is substantially lower – making CT more affordable – than in LAs in Wales where THE LOWEST VALUE FOR BAND D CT AS A PERCENTAGE OF MEDIAN ANNUAL GROSS PAY IS 6.20%.
Why focus on Wales? Because it is Labour-run! Too often the leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland is in denial over the relevance of examining its party’s policies and governing credentials based on what’s happening in Wales where Labour has always formed the devolved government.
Labour ministers in Cardiff have made clear on various occasions that Westminster government harms Wales yet the unionism of Labour leaders in Scotland too often leads them to blame Scotland’s ills on Scotland’s devolved government! (I note in passing that when complaining about CT in Scotland in The Scotsman on 11 July 2023, Labour’s Dame Jackie Baillie MSP opted to draw comparisons between Labour-run Wales and Scotland! So what’s good for the goose ….!)
Now households across Scotland may wish they had been asked to pay more in CT in 2023-24 – just like households the length and breadth of Great Britain, including in Labour-governed Wales – in order to have more money spent on local services. There is a legitimate and important debate to be had over such matters. However, opponents of the Scottish Government are presently seeking to scare voters over potential future increases in the higher CT Bands in Scotland, confident that the BBC and mainstream media will once again fail to provide relevant context or perspective.
(It’s beyond the scope of this already lengthy btl post but comparing the highest CT band rates in 2023-24 in Scotland with those in Labour-run Wales gives added ‘perspective’ that I suspect the Labour leadership hopes voters in Scotland never acquire!)
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