“You’re asking me the wrong question,” he said. “It should be ‘why not renationalisation?’” – the reverse logic being that the best way of avoiding his worst-case scenario would be for him to demonstrate what it could actually look like.
Yet despite Labour’s vociferous calls for change, and renationalisation now being a key part of today’s utilities narrative, the privatised energy and water sectors have been slow to counter their critics in such a way.
To varying degrees, they have so far failed to make a compelling enough case to the public – particularly the younger demographic – both about the successes achieved under private ownership and the potential future benefits of privatisation.
It’s a key driver behind our New Deal for Utilities campaign, looking at how companies can rebuild public trust in the face of increasing adversity, not least the renationalisation debate – a point explored in more detail in our latest report on p6.
A recent poll commissioned by Utility Week bears this out, with most people backing some form of public ownership, compared with just 14 per cent thinking utilities should stay in private hands.
Yet, as the aforementioned chief executive suggested, the reality of renationalisation could be very different to what the public might understand it to mean.
Do they, for example, fully appreciate the breakdown between retail, distribution and generation? Or, more likely, would they be hard pushed to even name their network operator?
And would a renationalised water industry competing for cash against the NHS be a funding battle the public really wants to see?
How would nationalising networks link in to the wider debate around urgent decarbonisation, and would Labour’s renationalisation model look anything like most people, even the unions, are expecting?
With rising public concern around foreign ownership and security of supply, coupled with the current societal mistrust of big business in general, it is easy to see why voters could lean towards a greater community involvement.
But, as with Brexit, a binary choice on a big question can be perilous. Certainly, Labour’s vision requires more detail around financing and how a renationalised utility would run.
Thirty years in, privatisation could prove a tougher nut to crack than some might think.