Indeed ... although pension funds have spread the risk in the last 30 years thereby reducing their UK stock holdings it's worth remembering that worldwide pension funds hold about 40% of all stock .... so a large percentage those evil 'shareholders' creaming off their dividends are in reality using it to pay our pensions.
K
Absolutely on the money.........I find a predictable politically motivated dialogue every time on these type of issues, without as you pointed out the full appreciation of where those evil dividends go to support the pensions many currently enjoy or may come to enjoy in the future .
The reason why they were privatised in the first place was most of the UK water systems were Victorian, needed massive investment to update and the public purse couldn't support that future level of needed investment after decades of public ownership underinvestment and a equally abysmal management. The only real difference is basically the private sector has milked the current infrastructure for longer, than originally envisaged.
Without question there are clear cases of asset stripping and the various watchdogs should be given sufficient teeth to ensure that minimum standards are observed. Clearly the various governments since privatisation have not set clear deliverables expected of the water companies eg stop sewage discharges into rivers and coastline and so on.
