Water: resist the drift to privatisation

Keeping water in public hands is more efficient and more sustainable, a special STUC water conference was told last week.

Delegates from a range of organisations gathered in Glasgow for the conference. The main aim was to launch research commissioned from the Public Interest Research Network (PIRN) at the University of Strathclyde; "Scottish Water - The Drift to Privatisation".

Professors David Miller and Christine Cooper presented the findings of their research into the regulation of Scottish Water, the various factors that are tending towards the privatisation and the policy options ahead.

Professor Miller's key message was, "It is clear that the international financial institutions, together with EU directives are exerting pressure on the Scottish Executive to privatise Scottish Water.

"Some suggest that mutualisation is an alternative to privatisation, but our research shows that in the current context, mutualisation is simply privatisation by the back door.

"There are alternatives to privatisation which would have the advantage of being more efficient, more sustainable and more democratic. A revitalised public sector utilising models from countries like Sweden could keep water in public hands and have the added advantage of costing customers significantly less".

Other speakers at the conference included economists Jim and Margaret Cuthbert who argued that water privatisation is inevitable unless the pricing model used by the regulator is challenged. Kirstie Shirra from the World Development Movement presented a short film and led a discussion examining the international experience of water privatisation.

On behalf of the STUC water unions, UNISON's Dave Watson told delegates: "Scottish Water should remain publicly owned and accountable. Although mutualisation sounds attractive it only provides a façade of democracy as the banks would control the organisation and all services would be privatised."

The next steps for the trade unions will be to work with others to promote the analysis in the PIRN report, oppose privatisation and develop the Scottish public service model.

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