RUTH SUNDERLAND: New PM needs reform, resilience, and responsibility

The most important task for the new Prime Minister in the face of the energy crisis is to defend capitalism morally and intellectually at a time when conservative values ​​are under attack even from within.

The concept of the small state is in danger of being thrown overboard.

Among the most discouraging recent statistics are polls showing a majority of Tory voters favor the re-nationalization of energy companies. There are similar demands from water companies, which have brought themselves into disrepute this drought summer.

The energy industry is largely in the hands of opportunistic financiers, fat executives and foreign owners who are now clamoring for billions of pounds in taxpayer bailouts.

Water utilities lose billions of liters every day through leaks, sewage pumping and paying their bosses unearned fortunes.

Nationalization would make the situation worse, not better. These industries must be made sustainable and not relegated to the discredited state ownership of the past. The disconnect between executives and the customers they serve continues. At a time when business leaders should flex every sinew to help consumers and employees, many have had a sensitivity bypass.

An investigation by our sister newspaper The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that the executive branch’s gravy train has rattled on despite the pandemic, war and economic turmoil. A “Name and Shame Register” introduced by the Conservatives in 2017 for companies whose shareholders object to excessive wages has made no blind distinction. Talented bosses deserve rewards, but there must be an awareness of possible reputational damage and social divisions.

Outrageous executive pay and perks weaken the link between merit and reward.

This can lead to an erosion of work ethic, another fundamental conservative principle. The pandemic has triggered a major reassessment of the value of work and its role in our lives. Some of that—flexibility, innovation, and better balance with other areas of life—is welcome.

But a less attractive culture of entitlement has also emerged, in the wave of union militancy and also among WFH warriors and “silent quitters” doing the bare minimum. The new prime minister should be concerned that so many businesses and families are suffering so badly from financial resilience this winter.

In some cases, this is because they were really tight on cash and didn’t have an opportunity to build a buffer. In others, there was a choice, encouraged by low interest rates, to trade resilience for a desire to maximize profits.

After the credit crunch, banks were forced to become more resilient, but other industries were not.

The incoming prime minister and regulators need to consider how to better protect taxpayers and billpayers from potential large-scale outages in other sectors, including energy.

One should have learned from the financial crisis that supposedly extraordinary measures all too easily become a way of life. The cutting of interest rates to the bone was intended as an emergency measure, but was quickly returned to normal.

During the pandemic, the need for help was real and urgent in many cases.

But the magic money tree has already exceeded Jeremy Corbyn’s wildest imagination, leaving us wriggling under the heaviest tax burden in 70 years.

The new resident of No10 should address the three Rs. Addressing the energy crisis must be accompanied by reform, greater resilience and a return to that fundamental conservative value of accountability.