Robert Peston

investment and pricing structures for every single one of them, totally uniform across the country.

And you would do the same thing with energy and potentially other utilities too.

And it would be essentially a massive extension of government control.

Now,

That may sound very appealing to people in principle, if it sounds to people as though you're going to get investment and lower prices.

The problem is, of course, that first of all, when it comes to energy, you've got to ask yourself, which bit of the energy industry are you talking about?

Because there are companies that...

have the relationship with you and me as customers.

Then there are others who are generators.

There is another massive, you know, business that controls the network.

It is not just unlike, you know, buses are just, you know,

There are basically bus owners and operators, and then there's the Manchester mayoralty.

It's a simple structure.

Energy is just an intrinsically much more complex industry with multi-tiers of ownership.

So which bits would you control is complicated.

This has been a problem with water privatisations, why it should never have been privatised in the first place, is with energy...

With buses, you can see how private operators are able to compete, right, to provide service, right?

Essentially, water is just the pipes, right?

How do you – I mean, what are you going to do?

You're just basically going to say to Thames Water if it doesn't meet your –