Should the government renationalise utilities?

[di marco]

sorry if theres a thread already on this but i did search and couldnt find one

with the prices of gas and electricity increasing dramatically, do you think the government should nationalise gas/electricity etc? do you think people would benefit from this, and do you think it would mean the prices of gas and electricity would drop?

[Meh]

sorry if theres a thread already on this but i did search and couldnt find one

with the prices of gas and electricity increasing dramatically, do you think the government should nationalise gas/electricity etc? do you think people would benefit from this, and do you think it would mean the prices of gas and electricity would drop?


Some industries should never be privatised. The incentive moves from providing a service for the population to maximising profits for shareholders. Take railways for example. Prices have shot up, service has decreased. With Gas and Electricity its slightly different in that the price is set by the international markets. The big problem here is that there is a lot more speculation which drives up prices which is then incorrectly portrayed as a supply/demand problem (which has been the issue with the recent oil price hikes). Public services that are in the public interest should be treated as nationalised industries IMO.

Once you give private companies free reign you will get chaos. Just look at Northern Rock. The FSA failed in its public duty to regulate and we ended up with a bank being nationalised!