State of the roads

[Scootabout]

IIRC from the podcast linked to earlier, the university lecturers' pension fund owns 20% of Thames Water.

[The Spin Doctor]

Remember how, in the '70s, everyone drove Citroens with hydrolastic (?) suspension, because of the appalling state of French roads? Well the situation's reversed now, except that here it's 4x4s instead of Citroens.

Incidentally, I'm just back from a weekend's riding in Wales. Isn't Wales supposed to be poorer than England? If so, it's not reflected in the road surface quality. I noticed the difference as soon as I crossed the border.

Not as good as they used to be - they benefited from EU funding, and we know where that went...

[The Spin Doctor]

I was watching some of the select committee hearing footage of their session with Thames Water. 2014 OFWAT allowed Thames Water to up their debts from 3b to 10b, this being at a time when the then owners were paying dividends higher than their profits in some years. The CEO of OFWAT in 2014 is now joint CEO of Thames Water. Not only bent but blatantly so.

This excellent BBC Sounds podcast summarises the sewage situation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001yxl5

Incredibly, OFWAT allowed the water companies to increase their debts and use all this money to pay shareholder dividends. None of the debt went into water infrastructure. The water regulator knew but decided not to interfere.

What a coincidence that OFWAT’s former CEO is now the head of Thames Water.

ISTR Private Eye talked about all this at the time but the water companies said that the 'investment' by shareholders was essential to the business.

[The Spin Doctor]

Thanks to South West Water, a faulty valve let a parasite into Devon’s water supply—almost a hundred people fell ill.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... y-pay.html

Down there at the moment... fortunately on the other side of the Dart.