Colin Robinson
Introduction
Professor Colin Robinson is an economist based at the Department of Economics at the University of Surrey.. According to his University of Surrey biography,
"Colin Robinson worked for eleven years as a business economist, mainly in the oil industry, before being appointed in 1968 to the Chair of Economics at the University of Surrey, where he founded the Department of Economics...He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, of the Society of Business Economists and of the Institute of Energy. He is a past member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and of the Secretary of State for Energy`s Advisory Council on Research and Development in Fuel and Power. He was named British Institute of Energy Economics `Economist of the Year’ in 1992 and in 1998 received from the International Association for Energy Economics its "Outstanding Contribution to the Profession and its Literature" award".
He is also a prominent member of the influential Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA).From 1992 to 2002 he was Editorial Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, in addition to his university post. He is a member of the IEA`s Academic Advisory Council and a Trustee of the Wincott Foundation. The Institute for Economic Affairs has shown interest in the Water Industry over recent times. Their journal 'Economic Affairs' dedicated a section to discussing what they percieved to be the ‘The Crisis in Water’ , the section included an article from Colin Robinson titled ‘A Crisis in Water? The wrong sort of privatisation’ [1].
Colin Robinson and Scottish Water
Colin Robinson has published work which considers the current model of ownership and other future alternatives for Scottish Water. He wrote a paper for the Scottish Think Tank, The Policy Institute (now known as Reform Scotland), which evolved into a chapter for the book The Water Revolution: Practical Solutions to Water Scarcity edited by Kendra Okonski and published by the International Policy Network. Both articles discussed Scottish Water's current ownership model and the potential,indeed the need, for a new model founded on market principles and privatisation. Moreover, he critiqued the current model as a continuance of the failed nationalised model [2] [3].
Despite his criticism of the current model, Colin Robinson has met with the Chief Executive, Alan Sutherland and Chairman, Sir Ian Byatt of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland for one to one meetings with them in London [4].
References
- ↑ The Crisis in Water Volume 18.2(Economic Affairs, June 1998: 2-25)
- ↑ Colin Robinson 'Reviving The Scottish Water Industry', Policy Institute, Series: Economy No. 9 (March 2005)
- ↑ 'Robinson, C. (2006) 'How not to reorganise an industry: privatisation, liberalisation and Scottish Water', in Kendra Oskonski (ed) (2006) 'The Water Revolution: Practical Solutions to Water Scarcity' (International Policy Press)
- ↑ From the diaries of Alan Sutherland and Sir Ian Byatt, obtained through Freedom of Information, November 2008
