why on earth are utilities electric gas and water in private hands?investment in the infastructure and investment in new (useful) development is second to profit.
years back when it was cheap, no one cared. my monthly direct debit for gas/electric has now jumped up by 25% .its too late to do anything.
rock and a hard place. 
What a good question! I suspect the supporters of privatised core national industries will trot out "they are more efficient". Of course that is debatable as they have to pay shareholders a dividend and thus have to charge the customers more than a state run company.
A better question to ask would be Why are so many of the utilities owned in part or fully by foreign companies.? interestingly when utility prices are put up in countries like Spain the government have to OK them first. That keeps a check. In Britain we just have that mythical beast "free competition". Funny how they all charge much the same

Isn't it ironical that we subsidise German and French customers!
No matter how much I like the idea of renewable energy - particularly from the sea which seems to operate all the time, I keep coming back to we have got to get nuclear power stations and quick. What a relief that the Saudis didn't come up with the funding when we asked them to!