I still don't understand why some people seem happy to sit and accept that we cannot pass through charges to our customers.
NATS is a business - something that has been hammered into us in the past few years, so why not run it as a business?
This may be a simplistic view but I thought businesses worked out money in the following way.
Income (revenue) minus Expenditure (salary/pension/energy bills/development costs) equals Gross profit.
Expenditure should be done in the order of paying bills first - salary/pension/energy bills etc then looking at what is left for re-investment.
People are saying we can't pass through pension costs, yet we are a business. What will happen next? Do we turn round to Southern Electric(or whoever) and say
"Our regulator wants us to cut costs, therefore once our annual energy bill hits £100k, we are not going to pay anymore... it is up to you, the provider to cut your costs as we are not happy to pay for your staffs' pension"
It's effectively what the regulator is telling us to do - so we have been PPP'd and are now trying to run NATS as a business concern, yet we are having to do it with one hand tied behind our back.
The only reason Barron etc are happy to comply with the regulator without a fight is because it helps them push through a pension change which makes NSL attractive to prospective buyers. Otherwise as serious businessmen, they would not be putting up with such restrictions on how to run a business.
If anyone thinks that this is not in the back of the managements minds when pensions are being looked is IMHO, delusional.