So let me get this right. Southern Cross are running of lots of care homes for the elderly. Then they thought it a great idea to sell off the properties and lease them back. But now they can't afford the rents and have asked the landlords to accept a 30% reduction of the rent (just for the time being, of course!).
In fact I heard that's what happened to Woolworths. It wasn't that trade was that terrible - they just could no longer afford the rent on the properties they had previously sold.
When are our political masters going to "get it"? Public services are services for the public - the clue is in the title! It's not that difficult! But when you put public services into the hands of the private sector, they are in it to make money, not to serve the community. So the shareholders get their whack and the bosses get ridiculously high salaries and the elderly, vulnerable people suddenly find their future very uncertain.
Of course, we could go back to Railtrack. You remember them, the private firm that ran the railway track and made wonderful profits, until surveys after a fatal crash showed that they were not, actually, doing the job they were supposed to. Then for months on end rail travellers were burdened with longer journey times because of speed restrictions, and massive engineering works at weekends.
But back to the sale of care homes. The question I haven't got the answer to is this - where did the £1 billion they got from the sale of the homes actually go to??
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