The Impact of Privatisation on Industrial Relations in the Water Industry

Abstract

The Government's privatisation programme has had a number of objectives. Moreover the relative importance of objectives has changed over time. Bishop and Kay (1988) for example state that “privatisation was a policy devised in opposition by a section of the Conservative Party, and was seen primarily as a means of reducing the power of public sector unions” (p.1). As the policy developed the publicly stated emphasis changed. In the early 1980s reducing the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement and raising revenue for the Government were seen as important, but “with the acceleration of the privatisation programme, competition, efficiency and wider share ownership have been emphasised as the dominant themes” (Veljanovski, 1987, p.9). Not surprisingly with such fluctuations it is not always the case that there is consensus as to what the Government's aims are. In contrast to Veljanovski, Thompson (1988) for instance argues that in recent years “in practice privatisation policy has come to be increasingly focused upon the transfer of the assets of state enterprises into the private sector. The promotion of competition has increasingly taken a back seat” (p.29).