CBI outlines 2019 priorities for renationalisation

The Labour Party has proposed a renationalisation of large parts of the industrial base of the UK, including its water supply, railways, postal system and energy networks. Though business understands the need for improvement to the current system, renationalisation is a radical remedy.

Renationalisation would do direct and profound harm to not only to the targeted businesses and sectors, but to our wider economy; to the services on which consumers and businesses rely; and to our country’s finances. It could send investors running for the hills, and damage the UK's standing in the world.

Since privatisation, our energy sector has reduced the number of power cuts and carbon emissions by half. Private water companies have invested twice as much money into the system as the government did. And twice as many people use our railways now as they did under British Rail; the crowding we experience now is because the privatised railways are a victim of their own success.

Change to the current system is needed, but those changes will need the support of business. UK firms can be forward-thinking, foreseeing the risks and rewards and innovating in response, driving our industries forward.

As part of the CBI’s work on improving infrastructure across every region and nation in the UK, we are focusing on the topic of renationalisation in 2019 – proposing recommendations for reform and an alternative to renationalisation that benefits both consumers and business.

This year, the CBI plans to focus on private and public activities.

Private

Political engagement

• With a substantive case against renationalisation gathered, we plan to lobby all sides of parliament.
• We will also continue to place renationalisation as a domestic priority as part of our quarterly engagement with senior figures in the Labour Party. We will also engage the Conservative Party to push them to make the case against renationalisation.
• The CBI will put the buisness case to organisations such as Labour List and the Fabians Society.
• We will also engage trade unions to make them aware of the potential implications.

Engaging members to produce a case for reform

• The CBI will gather examples of best practice, highlighting where companies go above and beyond to contribute to society.
• We will also encourage members to place good corporate governance and social outcomes at the heart of their operations through our social value initiative.

Public

• Using the evidence gathered, we will publicly reiterate our messages on renationalisation each quarter, through a range of outputs including op-eds, speeches and panel events.
• We will also seek to strengthen the economic case against renationalisation, through producing new costings and developing a coherent counter to Labour’s claim that renationalisation will be cost neutral.

The CBI concluded 2018 with public interventions on the topic:

• CBI President, John Allan penned an editorial in the Telegraph – setting out our position on the future of the private sector’s involvement in infrastructure.
• Our Director General, Carolyn Fairbairn, included a critique of nationalisation in her annual conference speech.
• We held a panel event with the Social Market Foundation, and Independent Group MP, Chris Leslie, to explore alternatives to renationalisation.