Corbyn’s plan to nationalise water firms ‘will cost every family £500’
JEREMY Corbyn’s plan to nationalise water companies will cost every family £500, a report reveals.
His cut-price takeover will hit millions of workers whose pension pots are invested in the firms.
The Labour leader has vowed to take the utilities back into public ownership in a move he says will cut water bills.
But a new analysis shows it could prove to be a ticking timebomb for millions of hard-working families he wants to help.
Every household in the UK will lose an average of £510 in pensions and savings, according to a report by global economic consultants Nera.
Hardest hit will be the seven out of ten water company workers who are part of the employee share scheme.
They stand to lose about £2,300 each.
Nera boss James Grayburn said: “Whichever way you cut it, the renationalisation of UK utilities will be expensive.
“The taxpayer will either have to pay about £182billion – more than we spend each year on education, defence and transport combined – or the owners will take a big hit.
“The problem is that the owners are in large part you and me – our pension pots, our endowments or our savings for a rainy day.”
Mr Corbyn wants to replace the country’s “dysfunctional water system” with publicly-owned companies.
But he wants to do it without paying the full market price.
The less he tries to pay, the more savers and pension scheme members will feel the pain.
CBI policy director Matthew Fell said: “Nationalising parts of British industry, from water companies to energy networks, carries with it a massive health warning.
“It is presented as a magic solution but handing over whole sectors of our economy to be run by politicians would be hugely expensive to the public finances and wouldn’t necessarily improve the experience of all of us who use and rely on these services, day in and day out.
“Moreover, it could be particularly damaging for millions of pensioners who have saved for their retirement for decades.”
MOST READ IN POLITICS
The Nera report is a fresh blow for Mr Corbyn’s plans and comes after a recent ComRes poll showed public support for nationalisation had halved over the past nine months from 83 per cent to just 42 per cent.
Labour described the figures as an “absurd” attempt by water companies to protect their monopolies.
A spokesman said: “Instead of wasting their money on dodgy dossiers to instigate a project fear campaign to protect their rip off rates they should be using that money to keep customers’ bills down.
“Labour will fix this broken system by bringing the water companies back into public ownership, saving households £100 per year on their bills.”
He added: “The firm they have paid to create these fantasy figures to frighten pensioners with is the same one that’s received heavy critism for their work that was cited by Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris Agreement undermining global efforts to tackle Climate Change.”
GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]