Every household could end up £1,000 out of pocket under Labour’s nationalisation plans, study reveals
EACH household in the UK could be left nearly £1000 out of pocket under Labour’s nationalisation plans, according to a new study.
The figures from economic consultants Nera are based on direct losses from Brits’ pensions and savings, and indirect losses on holdings of other investments such as UK debt or gilts.
Nera’s report - conducted for industry body Water UK - calculates that a future Government will need to pay at least the fair market value to nationalise the UK’s water and energy networks and Royal Mail, to avoid a hit to savings and pensions.
That would land the taxpayer with a £193 billion bill.
But if, as feared, a future Labour government paid shareholders less than the fair market value for both the networks and mail operator, households would bear of loss of £600 on average due to the impact on pensions and savings.
And if shareholders did not get any compensation at all under any nationalisation of the key assets, that figure would rise to a total of £960 per home.
'NATIONALISATION IS A BAD IDEA'
Report author and Nera associate director James Grayburn said: “No matter which way you look at it, the cost of nationalisation is the same. Either the taxpayer foots the bill or there is a hit to savings and pensions but overall the cost is £193 billion, just split in different ways.”
Water UK chief executive Michael Roberts said: “The evidence keeps growing, showing that water nationalisation is a bad idea with an eye-watering price tag.
“It would hurt pensioners and savers, and risks turning back the clock to the days when service and quality failures were far more common because cash-strapped governments wouldn’t pay for the improvements needed.”
Opposition to water nationalisation in England has been growing. More than half of the public (53 per cent) are against it and only one in four people (27 per cent) now back it following the revelations about the impact on pensions, according to a recent opinion poll by ComRes.
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Some households would lose far more than headline figures - especially water company workers in share ownership schemes.
The researchers calculated that an employee with £10,000 invested in a publicly listed UK water network would face losses of around £2,600 if the networks are nationalised at net asset value.
Labour’s four-day working week plan would also cost taxpayers £17billion a year, the Centre for Policy Studies claims.
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