George Binette, Camden Unison Branch Secretary, writes for the Islington Tribune on the recent spate of burst pipes in London. As Victorian pipes burst, massive profits continue to flow into the accounts of the privatised water companies – as much as £1.2bn in Thames Water’s case.
Perhaps it’s time to take a leaf from the book of the municipal reformers and socialists of the 19th & 20th centuries and take a vital natural monopoly like water back into public hands.