Yorkshire Water chief’s bonus gesture is hollow - Yorkshire Post Letters

I feel I cannot be the only person in Yorkshire who greeted with a hollow ironic laugh the news that the chief executive of Yorkshire Water is to decline her bonus this year.

Economic and industrial activity take place for two basic motivations; to provide social benefit or to create profit.

Many of our 'public' facilities purport to answer to both motivations, but the simple fact is that during times of economic stricture, it is the profit motive which always takes precedence. Indeed, it would be unlawful for boards of directors to make decisions which were not in the best interests of shareholders.

Since privatisation, tens of billions of pounds have been paid out to executives and investors in the UK water industry; if the ownership were public, those tens of billions would have been available for investment in infrastructure.

I do not understand why the logic of that is not immediately obvious to all concerned.