The Notebook: A key test for Labour? Dealing with the water industry
Where the City’s movers and shakers have their say. Today, it’s Lucia Hodgson, Charlesbye Strategy partner and former Downing Street special adviser, with the pen to talk manifestos, Trafalgar Square, and Labour’s first big test: the water industry
Full of crap? The next government has a tough task ahead
As the election campaign enters its last fortnight (I can hear us all breathing a collective sigh of relief), there will be much crystal-ball gazing over what exactly the likely Labour government will do in its early days – surprise taxes, King’s Speech bills, ministerial appointments. But there is one test we know is coming down the track, and that is how Labour will deal with the water industry.
The ‘draft determinations’ are the regulator Ofwat’s verdict on pricing and investment for water companies, and are due to be one of the first things on the new PM’s desk. It will almost certainly feature challenging new regulations for a sector facing intense scrutiny.
Charlesbye Strategy recently polled one of the rumoured policies: cutting water company fines to support proper infrastructure investment and stop leakage. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was the second least favoured option, coming after nationalisation. Just 11 per cent supported reduced fines, compared with 45 per cent who believed CEO and senior executive pay should be cut. Add reducing shareholder dividends into the mix and that number is 63 per cent.
Labour will need to prepare a robust and credible set of policies to deal with this issue. It may well be the companies under pressure, but 47 per cent of the public believe that responsibility to improve the water industry sits with the government and the regulator. With trust in politicians at an alarmingly low rate, this test of resolve will be important to get right.
Despite the issue reportedly ranking first on Starmer chief of staff Sue Gray’s “S**t List”, it’s been notably absent from the Labour and Conservative campaigns. Both parties know the sector is notoriously difficult to reform, but that’s a hard sell to voters thirsty for change. If the new government doesn’t want a bailout on their hands, it will have to agree to some potentially unpalatable fixes.
Trafalgar Square could be a haven!
Finally some sunshine, and sitting on the steps of St Martin in the Fields should be one of the most pleasant places to be in London. Instead, niche campaign groups compete over their megaphones with buskers and sound systems, making Trafalgar Square one of the least ambient places in London. Some al-fresco cafes, outdoor exhibitions, or even just some more seating would transform the area around the National Gallery into one of London’s best spots to watch the world go by.
With the addition of a few extra seats and cafes, Trafalgar Square has the potential to be a summer al-fresco dining hotspot – why is it only home to campaign rallies and feral pigeons?
Manifestos: TLDR
Charlesbye has spent the last fortnight reading election manifestos cover to cover to decipher potential implications for our clients. Despite hundreds of pages, many businesses are still telling us they just are not sure what Labour will actually do – from energy policy through to early years. Our polling found that although only nine per cent of the public read them, 70 per cent recognise their importance in deciding how to vote.
Parties must get their messages out beyond that nine per cent. Labour seems to have made excellent in-roads with Generation Tiktok – confirmed when I spotted they’d jumped on the very odd Little John home design trend…IYKYK
Quote of the week:
I am not your punch bag! I am a member of parliament.
From the new play, The Constituent, on at the Old Vic
A recommendation
I’ve always loved whatever Miranda July turns her hand to, whether film, art or writing, and her new book does not disappoint. I tore through All Fours in a single weekend, a page-turner about a middle aged woman who abandons her cross-country road trip to instead spend three weeks in a motel thirty minutes from home. She keeps up the pretence of the trip with her family as she embarks on a weird and wonderful journey of discovery and soul searching, with lots of July’s trademark quirkiness and subtle probing into sexuality, femininity and contentment along the way.
Late to the party, I also recently saw People, Places and Things at Trafalgar Theatre and thought it was brilliant and enthralling.