Leaking money. The finance costs of privatised water and regulation in England and Wales: Scottish public ownership shows potential savings
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
• The financial costs of the privatised water and sewerage companies of England and Wales averaged 35% of company revenue from customer bills in 2023-24 o These costs are the return on capital to private shareholders and the interest (and index-linking) on the bonds and loans from creditors o These financial costs mean that over one-third of customer bills pass straight through the companies without being used for water and sewerage services o All companies have high finance costs, including Welsh Water: despite being owned by a ‘non-profit’ company, it loses 41% of bills to finance costs – the same as Thames Water • By contrast, the financial costs of publicly owned Scottish Water represented only 8% of revenue in 2023-24: less than a quarter of the costs in England and Wales o This is partly due to not having to pay dividends to private shareholders o Scottish Water has also taken on far less debt than the E&W companies • Scottish Water has on average invested about £180 per household per year since 2022 – about 50% more than the average in England and Wales over the same period, which is about £120. • The high financial costs of the private companies are reinforced by the regulatory system. Almost half of the 35% price increase planned by OFWAT for the next 5 years 2025-30 is based on doubling the return on capital/financial costs, from £11.1bn in 2019-24 to £22bn. in 2025-30 o OFWAT’s price decisions represent the largest real price rises in any 5-year period since privatisation. Prices in 2030 will be double, in real terms, what they were at privatisation • OFWAT assumes that the companies will pay off none of their existing debts over the next 5 years – they are expected to replace expiring debt with new, more expensive debt, which will increase financing costs – as well as taking on further debt. • Under any assumption about compensation levels, taking the English and Welsh water companies into public ownership could save £3bn-£5bn in annual financing costs. This could increase new investment, or reduce the average annual water bill by £100-£160 per annum.
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Prédiction distillée sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Apprise à partir de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Gemma. Le mode candidate est l'union des têtes enseignantes seuillées; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont ni des étiquettes humaines ni des étiquettes directes de modèles de pointe.
Scores Codex et Gemma par catégorie
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,000 | 0,001 |
| Communication savante | 0,000 | 0,001 |
| Science ouverte | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule tête enseignante, pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».