https://www.newpower.info/2019/04/reader-question-what-lessons-should-we-learn-about-public-or-social-ownership-from-previous-experience/ Expert information for all those invested in the UK's energy future Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:08:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 https://www.newpower.info/2019/04/reader-question-what-lessons-should-we-learn-about-public-or-social-ownership-from-previous-experience/#comment-60700 Karma Loveday Fri, 12 Apr 2019 07:48:01 +0000 http://www.newpower.info/?p=6709#comment-60700 In water, it is clear that some public ownership arrangements work better than others. Scottish Water is publicly owned but run as a business. The Scottish Government sets objectives and provides some finance, but crucially there’s an independent regulator who oversees six year long price controls, giving SW certainty over both its income and what it is expected to deliver. The model has worked well and enabled SW to deliver a comparable level of service to privately owned English water companies, despite starting in a much worse position. Northern Ireland Water is publicly owned but struggles with annual budgets from government – hence little ability to plan ahead – and, even worse, has to compete for funding with hospitals, schools, roads etc. Needless to say it commonly loses out with a knock-on impact on the services it is able to provide.

]]>