Guardian journalist Hettie O’Brien’s new book, The Asset Class, reveals how private equity firms are taking over essential public services, from water and energy to care homes and housing. The book opens with a textile artist in Deptford forced out of her workshop as railway arches are sold to invisible owners, illustrating how everyday spaces become traded assets.
O’Brien traces the rise of private equity since the deregulation era of Reagan and Thatcher, detailing how firms like Blackstone, KKR and Macquarie buy undervalued assets with borrowed money, then cut costs, wages and investment to maximise returns. The result is collapsing infrastructure, such as sewage dumped in rivers by debt-laden water companies, and care homes where elderly residents are treated as “the human equivalent of ATM machines”.
The book argues that private equity’s antisocial effects are supported by two pillars: secrecy, with profits and debt moved through offshore banks, and government complicity, as successive UK administrations offer favourable tax conditions while offloading public services. O’Brien concludes this has “rewired the state in service of a wealthy elite”.
While some researchers frame the issue in abstract terms, O’Brien marshals human stories and evidence to show how private equity degrades living standards. She suggests the government could fix the problem if it chose to, but her evidence indicates it is not minded to do so.
