Hall, David ORCID: 0000-0003-3574-8863 and Lobina, Emanuele ORCID: 0000-0003-4774-0308 (2012) Utterly uncompetitive - the home lands of eternal water privatisations. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

Private companies like to present themselves as champions of competition. We are told that repeated, vigorous battles between companies ensure the survival of the fittest; that privatisation and liberalisation are an opportunity to seize the benefits of this creative energy; and that y delegating our public water services to such champions we can ensure years of efficient and profitable service.

But in the water sector, contracts and licenses worth billions of Euros of revenues each year have never been exposed to competition. The great majority of privatised water in Spain, nearly all privatised water in France, and all the privatised water in the UK, have never been subject to competition. The business is extremely concentrated in the hands of a few companies, which are currently under investigation for anti-competitive collusion, which have previously been investigated for abuse of market dominance, and have been involved in a number of cases of proven illegal corruption.

The private business in this sector has been built by gaining uncompetitive, sometimes corrupt, monopolies, and then holding onto them for decades, in some cases over a century. The solution is to end privatisation.

Item Type:	Working Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords:	privatisation; competition; problems; water supply and sanitation; multinational corporations; Europe
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business Faculty of Business > Centre for Work and Employment Research (CREW) Faculty of Business > Centre for Work and Employment Research (CREW) > Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) Faculty of Business > Department of International Business & Economics
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	06 Mar 2024 11:51
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/30866

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