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The UK also has a partially privatised water system. When it first happened it was highly controversial, especially regional price disparities. Now years later
by cmdkeen 11y ago
The UK also has a partially privatised water system. When it first happened it was highly controversial, especially regional price disparities.
Now years later there's an interesting political storm in Scotland which has retained a public water utility. The public sector has to contract out for water supplies and a private bidder came in with a much lower bid. The Scottish Government, for various reasons not least that the private bidder was English, gave Scottish Water three opportunities to try and make a more competitive offer - they couldn't.
- craigyk 11y agoI can only say that you get what you pay for, private vs. public non-withstanding. I don't put it past any private company to put in an unrealistically low bid, and hope for one of three exit strategies (based on what I've seen in my short lifetime): 1) Bill the difference later, resulting in huge overruns. 2) Be out of the picture when the hits the fan. 3) Declare bankruptcy, all stakeholders walk away with their gains
- cmdkeen 11y agoExcept you don't have to take the lowest bidder but the best. In this instance the Scottish Government desperately wanted to not take the Anglian Water bid - if they could have pointed out the bid was infeasibly low, or that Anglian had a track record of the behaviours you mention, or other benefits that the public sector offer might have then they could have avoided giving it to Anglian. Despite trying several times to make the Scottish Water bid better they still couldn't beat the private sector alternative.