“Public ownership will save us an estimated £1.5 billion a year from cutting out profits and fragmentation, which can be put toward cutting passenger fares by up to 18%.”
By We Own It
At the State Opening of Parliament, King Charles set out his government’s plans for the coming year. Among the 40 draft laws the King mentioned, we’ve picked out five brilliant new policies; and we’ve listed five policies that weren’t included, but should have been if the new Labour government is going to be bold and consistent in its approach to public ownership.
Five hits
The Better Buses Bill
1. It’s fantastic news that Labour will give communities across the UK powers to take back control of buses. Under the last government we saw bus services decimated. In 2019 there were 1.5 billion fewer bus journeys than at privatisation in 1985. Since 2010 around 8000 bus routes have been cut. Making it quicker and easier for local leaders to bring buses into public control will have a positive impact on people’s quality of life, local communities and the economy.
2. Ending the ideological ban on new publicly owned bus companies. The municipally owned bus companies which survived Thatcher’s deregulation and privatisation are very successful. For example, Reading Buses can invest an additional £3 million a year in the bus network (around 12-15% of its annual turnover) because it doesn’t pay out dividends to private shareholders.
Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, Rail Reform Bill
3. Transferring all rail franchises to the public sector as they expire, and setting up Great British Railways. This policy begins the wholesale renationalisation of our railway that is long overdue. Public ownership of rail is the gold standard across the world, with the best railway system in Europe, in Switzerland, run in public hands. Public ownership will save us an estimated £1.5 billion a year from cutting out profits and fragmentation, which can be put toward cutting passenger fares by up to 18%.
Great British Energy Bill
4. Setting up Great British Energy as a new renewable energy generation company in public ownership. We’ve been banging the drum about a move in this direction for two years: in 2022 we pointed out that 9 out of 10 of the countries leading the way in terms of green transition already have a publicly owned renewable energy company – and so the UK needs to do the same. State owned energy generation can speed up the green transition while creating jobs, boosting the economy and returning a profit right back to that country.
Employment Rights Bill
5. This crystalises the commitments Labour made in its Plan To Make Work Pay: which, crucially for us, promises “the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation”. The only way outsourcing can actually save money is by undermining workers. Public service staff – who are disproportionally women, people of colour and migrants – are doing important work and they should be treated fairly. Bringing services in house means workers have decent employment, terms and conditions, improving their lives and their morale.
Five policies that weren’t included, but should have been – we will keep campaigning for these!
1. Substantial new funding for buses and rail to deliver better services. It’s vital that Labour gives councils the funding they need to invest in bus networks; without this, new local powers won’t deliver the change local communities are crying out for.
2. Bringing the rolling stock into public ownership. Our trains, carriages and freight vehicles are currently owned by ten private equity-backed companies, which together tripled their profits to over £400 million last year. As we pointed out in February, taking the ROSCOs into public ownership will go a long way toward enabling Labour to make the investments in our railway that are needed to make it work for passengers.
3. Bringing water companies into public ownership, starting with Thames Water. The chronic failure of the privatised water industry is well documented. Officials in the Treasury and the UK’s Debt Management Office have already stated that, unless the UK’s biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, “prolonged uncertainty” about its fate could “damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time”.
Labour’s unwillingness to nationalise Thames Water doesn’t stop the private sector pushing risk onto the public; in fact, failure to take Thames into local public ownership makes the taxpayer, the billpayer, and our environment more likely to bailout the existing shareholders.
4. Buying back British Gas to deliver cheaper energy bills directly to households. Margaret Thatcher sold off British Gas in 1986. The government can and should use Great British Energy to buy back British Gas to sell energy directly to UK households. It would cost around £1 billion – just under 0.04% of the current national debt.
5. Reinstating the NHS as a fully public service. It should be a no-brainer. Privatisation and cuts have brought our once world-beating health service to its knees. NHS spending on private or independent providers increased from £8.4 billion in 2013-14 to £13.8 billion in 2020-21. The UK has spent a total of £125 billion on non-NHS providers since 2012-13. Three quarters of the public want the NHS fully in public hands, and recent polling showed it was the policy area most people expected to hear about today; so it’s a huge missed opportunity for this not to be included in the King’s Speech.
We’ll keep pushing and campaigning to bring this new Labour government and public ownership closer together. Share this blog and show your support for services that work for people not profit.
- This article was originally published by We Own It on 17th July, 2024.
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