How we'll be backing Corbyn on public ownership

Photo of Robin Hood statue in Nottingham

15 September 2015

Jeremy Corbyn has put public ownership on the political agenda – and now he's the leader of the opposition. The new Labour party leader has called for rail and energy to be publicly owned, prompting the inevitable backlash from both industries. He's created a huge opportunity to make the case for public services for people not profit. Now we'd love to be part of a conversation about what public ownership looks like in a whole range of areas. We think it can be decentralised, centralised or somewhere in between. It can mean public sector, cooperative or not for profit but always accountable to us, the public service users. We Own It is independent of all political parties but we want to help move this debate forward. In the unpredictable months ahead, these are the four key points we'll be making in support of public ownership.

1. Public ownership is possible

Public ownership isn't some distant idea, it's happening all the time. Take energy, for example. Nottingham City Council has just become the first local authority to set up an energy company, Robin Hood Energy to provide cheaper, publicly owned energy to its residents (and anyone in the country can sign up). In Scotland, meanwhile, new not for profit provider Our Power is getting ready to provide heat and power to 200,000 households by 2020. In the US state of Nebraska, all energy is not for profit, provided by the public sector or cooperatives and nearly half of Germany's energy capacity is owned by its citizens. Are the Big Six energy companies a force to be reckoned with? Of course. Does that mean we should just give in and carry on paying £160 extra a year on our energy bills? Definitely not. Now that the debate is shifting, We Own It will be providing more practical examples and models of public ownership and more roadmaps for getting where we want to go.

2. Public ownership is desirable

We want public ownership because the evidence shows it's going to make our lives better. Research suggests rail fares could be cut by 18% under public ownership. All over the world, cities are bringing water into public ownership. In Paris, water has been brought under control of the city and bills have been slashed. Scottish Water is a public ownership success story – and people in Scotland spend £52 a year less on their bills. Many councils are bringing services in house because it gives them more flexibility and control, and means they can improve the quality of services. Public ownership can mean more accountability and democracy. As Corbyn says of the railways 'public control should mean just that, not simply state control: so we should have passengers, rail workers and government too, co-operatively running the railways to ensure they are run in our interests and not for private profit'. We need to show that by freeing our public services from the grip of multinationals, we can all get a real say, and real benefits.

3. Public ownership is what people want

Despite being fed myths for years, the polling shows again and again that the British public hasn't been fooled – we know privatisation has failed. A majority of us support public ownership of the NHS, the Royal Mail, the railways, energy and water. There is a huge gap between public opinion and mainstream party policies – as shown by our pre-election 'People vs Politicians' analysis. The Greens have been pushing for public ownership, and Plaid Cymru and the SNP have a mixed record, but the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are miles from public opinion, and Labour has been too, until now. The polling shows how popular public ownership is - we need to keep repeating that message. Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas and any other politicians can rely on us to back their demands for services that put us first.

4. Public ownership is the future

Corbyn's opponents keep trying to claim that he wants to take us backwards – but public ownership is the future, not the past. We need to talk about the new 'commons' that are being created. For example, should facebook be brought into public ownership? Let's also celebrate how national treasures that have been public for years have adapted and changed over time. Data from Ordnance Survey now underpins an estimated £100 billion of the UK economy. The Met Office has kept innovating and consistently ranks in the top two weather forecasters in the world.

The time for this conversation is now. Cameron has recently announced that he wants to see more outsourcing of children in care and prisons, despite the dangers of privatising child protection and the track record of private prisons. Meanwhile, George Osborne continues with the biggest privatisation ever of our public assets. As Corbyn goes head to head with a government driven by ideology, we'll be making the case for public ownership: possible, desirable, popular and forward-looking.

Photo of Robin Hood statue in Nottingham

Photo used under Creative Commons licensing, thanks to andrew matthews.

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Comments

Brian Absll replied on Permalink

I think this is an idea whose time has come! Not that it's new, of course. But years of Tory ideology pumped out by a largely Tory Press have made it seem a dangerous idea. Total rubbish WE WANT IT. SOON!

Philip Dawes replied on Permalink

Private ownership of public services is for corporations to exploit the people and increase prices. Such systems are untenable in the long term, except for the exploiters, and against the public’s interest and well being.

All public services should be owned and operated by the people for the people.

Dan Cook replied on Permalink

We need to make sure ownership is genuinely "public" and not merely "state" ownership. Taking the long view, many community-owned assets were nationalised in the 20th century - the history of the co-operative movement tells us that state ownership is not a long-term guarantor of public stewardship. For me, public ownership must include co-operative and mutual solutions that lock public accountability into business models and legal structures.

Mr Peter Davison replied on Permalink

Keep up the good work. It's time to fight back and stop the private companies and individuals fleecing money from the public purse. We've now got a person who says what he means and wants to protect our services.

TOM NISBET replied on Permalink

Tories and right wing press are genuinely worried as it is clear Jeremy Corbyn has massive support in the country and more and more see socialism as the way forward. He is said to belong to the 1970s but Mr Osbourne belongs to the 1870s.

Labour MPs must support or, if they really believe in neo-liberal policies then follow their conscience and do an SDP. Funny thing is, if the Corbyn policies attract huge numbers of supporters we will see Labour MPs say that they had always believed in those policies and had been guilty of misrepresentation!

paul Hoenderkamp replied on Permalink

We need public ownership on all the big supermarkets as well.They make massive profits to!

Lidia Tindle replied on Permalink

Yes Jeremy did it, just goes to prove that the people want a proper change and a good start would be taking back electricity, gas, water. I look forward to transport being taken back as well, I do not have a car and since Thatcher brought in competition, well in my area its Go ahead North East in Tyneside and parts of Durham region and Arrive in Teeside and Durham, I use buses to travel from my home in Tyneside to Teeside on a very regular basis to babysit. Its takes on a good day 3 and half hours, on a bad day it can take up to 5 hrs, because of buses not running on time or too early, breading down or just not coming and they go round and around. Used to be able to get from my home to all over the area on one bus but now you have to repeatedly change because, according to the bus companies they are unable to make a living on some of the routes, yea how come the owner of Go Ahead is a millionaire. Bring back public ownership and not profit services. Lidia

Vivian Jenkins replied on Permalink

Well said Lidia i agree with every word.The trouble has been they all in it together and by that i mean snouts in the trough and fingers in the pie looki g out for their rich matws and i ibclude labour in that too.i have always been a labour suppirter all my life and still am, but they have been pandering to the likes of Murdoch, Branson and co.for too long.I

I am estactic that at last we have a man in charge that has true vakues and opinions of fiarness and equality.

Frank heyes replied on Permalink

When the east coast mainline was reverted back to public ownership it started making a profit, in fact it was returning 3.8 million back to the taxpayer. Now it's Richard Branson that's running it and, his west coast mainline is subsidised to the tune of many millions by the taxpayer. I always thought that if it was a private company the company had to stand on its own two feet, after all, which other private companies are subsidised by the taxpayer. Hopefully Corbyn will not go back on his promise to renationalise the railways, unlike John Prescott who promised to renationalise but broke his promise and let the rail workers down.

Robert Hooper replied on Permalink

A "mixed economy" - if implemented by Government, could be the "ideal" economy.

Its success would depend on the quality, integrity, learning and experience of those who are to be involved.

Assuming that total honesty and total lack of all aspects of corruption is assured and guaranteed through total transparency, then those economies, businesses and industries that do become subject to Public Ownership, it then relies on incentivisation and a healthy, competitive spirit to encourage senior execs to use their utmost endeavours to ensure that from from top to bottom, every employee will be as keen to perform to the best of Public Service Standards....perhaps on a Regional basis...whereby at Annual intervals, the leading National "Best Regional Performer" in that utility will earn (for example, a 20 percent reduction in charges to all domestic users for one year... as opposed to profits being hived off to private investors and speculators.

If the financial climate imposes serious limitations and investment is required to maintain, upgrade and to modernise that industry, then the Annual Twentyfiver Percenter 'discount' might have to be deferred to another year.

The above is expressed in naive terms but illustrates that a "British kind of Socialism" should not... and must not be confused with any form of Idealogy that has roots in other times and Countries, regardless of the many historical precedents that many will surely argue that our path for the future should be linked to some elses past. Wrong! This is the perfect time for introducing a unique and accommodating British way of finding our way towards a secure future.

carl hardin replied on Permalink

Reading this article has brought me hope that their is political sense after all! With Jeremy Corbyn as leader we at last have someone in charge with the right ideas and most importantly with ordinary people in mind. The large private multinational companies who are making profits at the expense of peoples misery must now be very apprehensive about the future. On a personnel note I am delighted that we have at last a "proper Leader" for our Party, no more "watered down Tory politics" I wish him and his team every success for the future.

Deni Double replied on Permalink

We really need to take back ownership if our public services,transport and utilities. In these days of modern technology it will be so easy to make these facilities publicly accountable. I would be very happy to be part of a public panel by email for instance, to scrutinise public transport as I have no other means of getting around due to poor eyesight preventing me driving. So pleased we seem to have a politician willing to bring re nationalisation back on the political agenda.

Deni Double replied on Permalink

We really need to take back ownership if our public services,transport and utilities. In these days of modern technology it will be so easy to make these facilities publicly accountable. I would be very happy to be part of a public panel by email for instance, to scrutinise public transport as I have no other means of getting around due to poor eyesight preventing me driving. So pleased we seem to have a politician willing to bring re nationalisation back on the political agenda.

Mr Graham Woodw... replied on Permalink

Letter to the Swindon Advertiser local newspaper as published today, which may be of interest to 'we own it'. Thank you!

Dear Editor,

Some weeks ago I wrote to the SA concerning the loss of the Meteorological Office contract with the BBC, and I also outlined what a great loss this would be for all of us as the forecasts would possibly be no longer based upon science, and the super-computers that back it up.

It gave me great pleasure to see a small letter in last Friday’s SA from an F E Sharp of Plymouth, entitled ‘Don’t axe Met Office’ in which he mentions that a petition exists at WWW.petition.co.uk where one needs to navigate to the ‘Environment section’, to find, and sign ‘Weather Contract with the Met. Office’.

As the letter from very short, succinct, and to the point I have considered that even though F E Sharp did not mention as such, being only 36 miles from the Met. Office in Exeter he may well be in their employ and if so this is definitely something to be proud of as they are the unsung heroes of the civil service that are taken for granted, and barely if ever warrant a mention in the media.

I particularly noted what he mentioned about having to keep the weather forecast supplied from within the UK, as this clearly points to the distinct possibility of it being outsourced to a foreign contractor which would be nothing short of a disaster, and not just from the standpoint of scientific accuracy.

I am most grateful for F E Sharp making me aware of this petition and I will be signing it at the first opportunity, and I also sincerely hope that other SA readers that have over the years who have cherished the daily forecasts that are supplied to BBC TV and radio as part of our British way of life will do likewise.

Finally I see the loss of the contract with the BBC as being the ‘unthinkable’ as it has always made common sense to resource this vital information from the best scientific resource available, and I must conclude that putting out this service to contract in the first instance is yet another precursor from this government to quietly privatise it, in the hope that none of us are going to notice. Like so many things that have been privatised we all end up with an inferior second class replacement, and as the old saying goes, ‘when it’s gone its gone’, along with yet another part of our cherished British way of life.

Thank you

Yours Sincerely

G A Woodward, Nelson Street, Swindon.

Francis heyes replied on Permalink

Take the utilities back from the French, Russians and Canadians, we the British public should own them not other countries. Cameron should be ashamed.

Francis heyes replied on Permalink

Keep British utilities and transport in British taxpayers hands not in other countries hands. Cameron should be ashamed of himself.

pete ritchie replied on Permalink

beautifully simple framing of the four key messages

john Burns replied on Permalink

Why was the East Coast Railway put back into private hands? It made a profit for the public purse and offered more reasonable fares for the public. Virgin/Gloag have put up the prices and offer a less good service.

The whole railway system should be back in public hands with a new clean sweep management. So should power and water.

Dianne Bruce replied on Permalink

I totally support Jeremy Corbyn and believe our utilities should be re nationalised for the common good of the people and not for the profits of big corporations.

Colin Wymer replied on Permalink

Thank you for writing to me. I wish you well in the aim of ensuring that those things that we have created together remain in the public realm for the benefit of all.

I would add that, for me, it is the very idea of ownership that lies at the heart of our difficulties.

With all good wishes.

Michael Brackenbury replied on Permalink

Privatisation was inconceivable when we were young, with even Harold Macmillan, the Tory prime minister describing it as "selling off the family silver".. The Thatcher ministers who started it off had all made their millions in the asset stripping craze of the late sixties and seventies. They bought rundown companies or properties at bargain prices, dividing them up and reselling them at a profit. This was a continuation of the "spiv" wartime black market culture. Slum landlord Rachman, dodgy magazine proprietor Heseltone were examples, though Mrs T don't quite have the nerve to make Rachmani a minister.

This disreputable history has been continuously whitewashed in succeeding years and is now presented as God given.

Some of us have long memories and now a majority of us all know that the policy doesn't work. Tina is dying as we watch.

Dermot Killingley replied on Permalink

There is a fiction that the market does things more efficiently and benevolently than the state. In order to make this fiction plausible, the state tries to show itself to be as inefficient and malevolent as possible.

cyril couve replied on Permalink

Brillant ... the more debate the better as neo-liberal fundamentalism, which is failing, needs to be questioned in the open and demystified. Many people feel and experience it, they need the words to say it. Corbyn needs our backing.

Sheila Panton replied on Permalink

Too much rhetoric confuses. What is required to underpin the message about the relevance of public ownership are facts and figures for example on: 1. costs - our population will be concerned about initial re-acquisition costs of utilities and the effects on bills. These will ultimately be more acceptable than they are now but people need to 'see' that 2. health and welfare - public transport (particularly trains) must be causing unlimited amounts of strain on personal health of travellers, costs nationally in GP visits due to stress, hospital visits due to physical strain and costs to industry due to 'not getting there' apart from the hiving off of profits to re-pay private investors 3. NHS - costs, staffing figures etc. are already 'out there' but not in plain facts - it costs more to run matters with constant changes without consulting those who actually work in the medical profession, it is more efficient to retain not only trained staff but their goodwill too. etc.etc. 4. The history of how we got to this position needs setting out so that everyone who is interested and hopefully too those who are initially not can be properly informed whether they have studied history/politics or not. 5. The method of rectifying matters needs setting out - the stages, costs, methodology. 6. The ultimate benefits as well as problems need setting out.

As has been mentioned many times - people are not stupid but just a bit too busy/lazy and hazy to make a decision when that depends on 'finding out' all sorts of relevant information upon which to make a decision to support a policy. Provide straight forward facts backed up by evidence and the case will pretty well be won. There will always be those whose ideas differ and their political persuasion cannot be changed - at first! Information is the key word. Inform! 'Opinion' is largely irrelevant.

I wish Jeremy Corbyn and this new era well in proving a forum for debate. ideas for improvement and a more Just Society for all.

Phil Adams replied on Permalink

Transport For London are currently plastering the tube with adverts stating that:

"We don't make a profit because we reinvest all our income to run and improve your services.

We are a public body, with no shareholders or parent companies, which means we can reinvest every pound of income in the transport network"

Now there may be some obfuscation there, since, for instance Serco run the DLR and presumably make handsome profits from it.

But if the principle is good enough for Boris in London, TFL and those adverts can be used as a prime reason why the whole National Rail network should be back in OUR hands.

Richard Lockwood replied on Permalink

This is something I have believed in virtually all my adult life. The energy companies are screwing us left, right and centre with only shareholders and directors/managers/etc getting anything out ie the tory supporters. As for the railways, they were in a mess when they were privatised and now service no longer exists and profits rule.

Andy Atkins replied on Permalink

Now we need to help Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister.

Joseph Marshall replied on Permalink

After serving the public for decades without having sought power, Jeremy Corbyn now finds himself in a powerful position. It will be fascinating to see what such a person does. It's also very encouraging that a leading politician is now openly talking about possibilities for change that many of his colleagues have been too nervous to discuss. Although public ownership has recognisable problems of its own, the mania for privatisation is far more damaging (I think it's safe to say that the siphoning off of parts of the NHS into private hands will ultimately be to the public's disadvantage). Many of the justifications for private ownership are based on a fundamentalist faith in one particular kind of economics, whose doctrines have been preached very widely. If people are fed the same diet for years, this doesn't necessarily mean that other types of food are unavailable.

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