This newspaper (pages 1-2 and 31-32) has been lining a drawer since before our children were born but it relates to Nicholas Ridley’s plans to privatise the 10 regional water authorities in England and Wales, and thus was a step on the road to the mess that is water and sewerage services and their regulation today.
The Water Authorities Association said that privatisation would ‘not be in the best interests of customers, shareholders or government’. No mention of the environment but probably many would agree that privatisation has not been great for customers, has been profitable for shareholders, and the environment has been the main victim, as is often the case. Government will be thinking how to resolve the mess that is now in very plain view, not least in rivers and at beaches.
The article envisaged government raising £7bn from the privatisation. The Confederation of British Industry opposed privatisation as did trade unions and ‘environmental lobbies’.
The privatisation led to the setting up of the National Rivers Authority which would regulate pollution, navigation and land drainage. The NRA changed into the Environment Agency in 1996. The article said that some feared the setting up of a huge quango with 7,000 people – the Environment Agency now has a staff of over 10,000 (but has somewhat wider areas of responsibility, although none, now, for Wales).
In other news, the winner of Wimbledon for the previous two years, Boris Becker, was knocked out, Gorbachev was pushing forward with reforms in the Soviet Union, David Steel was pushing the SDP to merge with the Liberals, Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker, was planning to give teachers a 16.4% (stet) pay rise, wildlife photographer, Eric Ashby, won a county court injunction preventing New Forest foxhounds entering his garden, Japan was falling into line with an end to ‘scientific’ whaling, and there wasn’t anything interesting on the television (but it was a Sunday). Whatever happened to Becker, the Soviet Union, the Liberals, pay awards, fox hunting, whaling and Sunday TV?
I might look in some other drawers for more news. What have you got?
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It seems that the Water Authority Chairmen were more strongly (“fundamentally”) opposed to the setting up of the NRA than they were to privatisation. And so it has been ever since with demands to fix leaks and prevent sewage overflows seen as an unwelcome hinderance in the generation of fat dividends for shareholders.
What is it with these Ridleys?
Although i did enjoy the other one’s Red Queen book.
And these Johnsons and these Rees-Moggs, Gary.
EA was the most disfunctional organisation I ever worked with – sprawling and uncoordinated with the response you got a matter of the luck of the draw rather than any visible system. It’s been suggested before that it needs to be split because the range of functions is far too big to be managed effectively.