Andrew Snelson recalls the lengthy wait to have a landline installed by publicly owned British Telecom. In a letter responding to Julian Coman's article on renationalisation, Snelson argues that the key factor in service quality is investment, not ownership.
The Investment Imperative
Under either private or public ownership models, what truly matters is the level of investment in a service, Snelson contends. He points out that pressure from successive governments to suppress investment allowances in order to keep utility bills low has had a greater impact on service levels than the behaviours of some owners.
Questioning Renationalisation Funding
Snelson challenges proponents of renationalisation to identify where the government will find billions of pounds of extra investment on top of what private investors currently provide, given its over-stretched budgets.
He concludes that the debate should focus on investment rather than ownership alone, suggesting that the current model's shortcomings may be due more to regulatory constraints than ownership structure.
