Callum Joyce, Socialist Party National Committee
‘Cost-of-living crisis’ was a new term in 2022. Now it has become a part of everyday language.
Workers and young people in Britain have faced rising costs and falling real-terms incomes.
Now utility bills are set to rise again, with some energy companies predicting the price cap may have to rise by 20% as soon as January! Numerous water companies have been granted permission to raise more than £3 billion through bill increases over coming years.
Triple lock
Decisive action is needed to end this misery. Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke at Labour Party conference in Liverpool, including announcing plans to end the pensions triple lock. He points to the failures of privatisation and the need for greater ‘public control’ over utilities, correctly. He talks of increasing regulation and devolving regulatory powers to local authorities.
Anglian Water, among other water companies, was banned from granting bonuses to executives last year because of their record of leaking sewage and failing to maintain infrastructure. Was their response to this regulation to finally start investing where it’s needed? No, instead they granted a £500,000 ‘retention payment’ to their boss, while executives at other companies were granted hefty pay rises too!
Nothing less than full nationalisation – a policy supported by the overwhelming majority – if under democratic working-class control and management, can achieve the genuine democratic public control required to bring down our bills and end the sewage scandal.
This should be done with no compensation for the vulture shareholders who have already made billions from hiking bills and piling up debts. Those that have a proven need for compensation – workers who have part of their pensions invested in utility companies, for example – could easily be paid using the wealth of the super-rich, and have their pensions secured.
Working-class control
Burnham talks about his ‘plan for public control’. A real plan for the economy – a socialist plan – would mean nationalisation not just of utilities but of the banks and all major monopolies under the democratic control of the working class. Just four UK banks made a profit of almost £29 billion in the first half of this year. Under democratic public ownership, those resources could be invested in upgrading and renewing Britain’s energy and water infrastructure, while slashing bills.
But the capitalist bosses won’t just hand it over. Burnham has made it clear he won’t be encroaching on their wealth, power and profits. The working class has to be mobilised to fight for it. As part of that, the trade union movement should take steps towards establishing its own party – a new mass workers’ party, armed with a socialist programme.
