Government is keen on competition and yet everywhere you look it doesn't seem to work. Water companies charge what they want and CEs earn £1 million a year. That hardly seems like a lean and keen organisation, but more like fat cats milking the system.
How about your energy bills -- electric and gas? No competition there either. The worse offender is British Gas. Why? Because EDF etc. are subsidising their home nations. People in France and Germany pay less because our bills are deliberately made higher than theirs. British Gas could clean up by undercutting everyone else, but no -- they chose to match their prices at a higher rate because we are gullible. The government is funding a two year study into this sector. They don't need to. All they need to do is compare what people in France and Germany pay and then realise how the UK public are being duped. And which MPs are championing this? None.
How about the roads? Look at the quality of road building. New roads last less than a year before potholes strike. Competition here seems to work, but you get a mess as a result. But has competition driven down prices? In Maidstone the Council funded painting of a line along the high street to make the kerb more visible, That cost £70k. To paint a line!! The M25 junction 5 took 3 years to repair less than 10 miles. 3 years! I wonder what that cost.
Competition fails because councils and government have no idea any more about cost. Everyone is simply trying to get richer on the back of public money. Look at the mess made by Southern Cross old folks homes. I bet the directors are now millionaires. In Edinburgh the parliament building and the trams is a great example of competition not working. In both cases it appears that the project was deliberately underbid and once work started it became an open cheque book for spending.
Governments and councils have lost the plot and see money as something to get rid of. The problem is - it's our money they are wasting.
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