How aboput this - We (NATS) starts being more frugal with the money from profit that it re-invests into the company. Then we dont waste millions on projects that are doomed to fail (due to short sightedness or ridiculously short timescales) such as TC North, Central, AMAN, iFacts etc.
So how should we invest money in the company then? If we don't invest, and invest heavily into projects like you've mentioned - how do we grow and develop the next generation of ATC systems and airspace designs?
These things are bl**dy difficult to do. Every ANSP finds them difficult, and NATS does a lot better with projects than most other ANSPs in the world. There's not a big ATC World type store where you can go and buy these systems from. They take a lot of time, money and effort to develop and put into service. We hear tidbits of the latest system that's gone into x and they have this feature in y and why have we got this crap system in the UK. Don't believe it, there isn't a true COTS system out there that would allow us to replace our systems here. These developments are VERY expensive.