Water firms exist to sustain life. They should answer to citizens, not shareholders

theguardian.com:

There is change in the air – vast change. Two years before the next general election it is obvious – just as it was in 1977 before Margaret Thatcher won in 1979 – that the existing policy framework has reached its sell-by date. Then it was the postwar settlement – including incomes policies and public ownership – whose weaknesses were becoming ever harder to defend, even among those of us who recognised its strengths. At the very least it needed a wholesale rethink and makeover, or, as Thatcher argued, be repudiated with a bracing new framework adopted in its place.

So, in 2022 we have the prospect of 13% inflation or even higher, swingeing energy bills that will topple millions into destitution. Add in the failures of privatisation dramatised by excessive water leakages and raw sewage blighting many beaches and rivers, an impossibly overstretched NHS, and workers being badged as irresponsible for merely trying to resist dramatic cuts in their real incomes. All this has crystallised how the whole Thatcherite edifice of economic and social policy, decaying for years, is suddenly and obviously redundant.

The Tory party’s response – to elect Liz Truss as its leader to double down on a framework that does not work – is wildly out of keeping with what is needed, and out of step with the popular mood. The Conservatives’ substantial poll deficit with Labour – the highest for a decade – is certain to widen further.

The evidence of the mood change is all around. Later this week, Ofgem is expected to announce that the price cap for energy will double in October to £3,500, with a peak of £5,000 expected in April. The social impact will be catastrophic. The Truss team has yet to show its hand, but the range of floated options limits