David Fletcher, NABO chairman writes,

There is good news coming from BW on the issue of the potential sell off. They have put out a press release The headline is:
“The UK Government has today (7 December 2009) ended recent speculation about the sale of British Waterways’ property endowment in England and Wales by announcing its preferred approach to “consider alternative models for the business as a whole, such as mutual or third sector structures”.”

So the immediate danger is past. The petition from the last weeks stands tonight at 18800. Thank you for your support for this.

There is a new word “mutual” in all this, which is not in the 2020 vision document. I cannot remember it as an option from the many presentations that I have sat through. So this is a bit of a gap for me at the moment. Wikipedia gives a definition of mutual company. I am told that the timetable might be sooner than 2020 too. I will keep you informed.

What BW don’t mention is that the Government has said that BW will ring fence the property and joint venture assets. This is not a new idea, but nothing has happened up to now. I think this is a good move, so that we can all see what is going on with the money. And for some reason they did not mention Gordon Brown’s tirade on Monday about public sector salaries.

A couple of quotes from a newspaper:
“Gordon Brown pledged to curb a “culture of excess” in senior public sector pay and bonuses today as he detailed plans to cut another £3 billion from the cost of running Government. The Prime Minister said many salaries above £150,000 and £50,000-plus bonuses would in future require ministerial approval as part of an efficiency drive.”

“And where senior managerial appointments are not directly under Government control we will expect the organisations in question to justify to the relevant secretaries of state and to the public any salaries above this level.”

Good, I look forward to that.