Hollinrake: Nationalisation not the answer on sewage

ODN

Shadow Housing Secretary Kevin Hollinrake rejects calls from across the political spectrum for nationalising water companies. He warns it could force the Chancellor to choose between fixing the sewage system or funding schools and hospitals. Instead, he defends the role of private capital in driving growth, investment, and tax revenue—warning that “every time a company makes profit, somebody wants to take it off them.” Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00I don't think playing musical chairs with regulators is necessarily the answer, but let's see what the report says tomorrow.

00:04I mean, nationalisation, I don't believe that's a solution.

00:07I think, you know, whichever way you look at it, if you want private capital, it's not just activists.

00:12You're talking, you're hearing from Nigel Farage and Ed Davey about privatising, about nationalisation.

00:17I don't think that's a solution.

00:19It'll mean a chancellor's got to choose between repairing a sewage system that's going to cost hundreds of billions of pounds

00:25or building hospitals and schools.

00:27I don't think that's the right kind of choice.

00:28And even if you were going to do that, you're going to need private capital, which is going to cost you money.

00:32People don't lend you money and not expect a return on it.

00:35And whether it's a return because of water companies who invest, who expect a return,

00:40or it's borrowed money where those people want to return, it comes back to the same thing.

00:46I personally think it's much better to let the private sector do this.

00:51The thing I really see in these countries, every time a company makes profit, someone wants to take it off them.

00:57Yet we know the foundation of this country, of what pays all the bills, are private companies investing.

01:03And building those companies, that creates the taxes and they employ people.

01:07That's the only thing that creates growth in this country.

01:09So either we believe in that and we back it, or we go to another system and have great concerns about the potential for that to happen.

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