The latest ASI paper “Utility Gains: Assessing the Record of Britain’s Privatized Utilities”, was featured in both the Daily Mail and the Express this morning, in articles covering the expansion of BT and Corbyn's plans to nationalise the railways, respectively.
From the Express:
Increased threats of strikes, less reliable services and monstrous inefficiencies are just some of the crippling implications to a Government-run railway, according to top economist Dr Eamonn Butler.
In a report for for independent thinktank The Adam Smith Institute, Dr Butler says the new Labour leader's plans to bring back British Rail are 'dismal' and would cause the network to stagnate.
And from the Daily Mail:
Privatisation may not have been perfect but it is infinitely better than the heavy handed state control advocated by Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes.
Nevertheless, the findings of a study by the laissez-faire Adam Smith Institute should be a must-read, not just for the Shadow Cabinet, but also some of the privatised utilities which still behave like monopolists.
As a private company BT has been far more adventurous and innovative that it could ever have been in the public sector. But it still acts as if it has the God-given right to be Britain’s dominant telecoms company.
A new Adam Smith Institute paper, “Utility Gains: Assessing the Record of Britain’s Privatized Utilities” assesses the various utility sales of telecoms, gas, water and electricity companies during the 1980’s and 1990’s and looks at how government, shareholders and customers fared since the privatisation process.