SSE is a ‘company’ which reported a profit of £3.5bn in 2021/22, so even after lavish payments to directors, executives and shareholders it’s not exactly short of resources. Yet there are recurrent power cuts in various parts of Ealing, not least in West Ealing where we live – always without explanation or indeed any effort to keep the victims informed. This reflects a lack of routine investment in sub-stations, switchgear, distribution lines and other facilities, all of which should, of course, be kept in top fail-safe condition and not just shoddily patched up every time there is a failure. We once had an excellent publicly-owned electricity supply sector and an outstanding British power engineering industry to equip it. Disgracefully, electricity was one of the utility services looted – sorry, privatised - in the 1980s/90s, the industry collapsed, and shareholders rather than customers immediately became the top priority.
Anthony Warwick-Ching ● 582d