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Nationalising the Royal Mail along with water and energy grids would pay for itself within seven years, according to new research.

A new report by Greenwich University’s Public Service International Research Unit [PSIRU] says nationalisation would save UK households £7.8 billion each year.

The research put the total cost of compensation to private sector owners at £49.7 billion.

This is a quarter of the Confederation of British Industry [CBI] figure of £196 billion, which included renationalising the rail network.

It comes as the Daily Mirror revealed Labour's plan to renationalise the broadband network and supply every home and business with superfast, secure and reliable internet within ten years.

It's believed Labour's manifesto will also include plans to nationalise water, the National Grid, rail and the Royal Mail.

David Hall, the director of PSIRU, said the figure is based on compensating shareholders for the amount they have invested into facilities being taken into national ownership.

This is in stark contrast to paying "market value" prices as the CBI suggested.

Professor Hall said savings are calculated by comparing the cost of refinancing with debt raised by issuing government bonds compared to the current cost of dividends and interest paid by private companies.

He found the UK would save £2.5 billion per year on water, £3.7 billion on gas and electricity and another £1.4 billion if existing Private Finance Initiative projects.

According to his calculations, the average household would be £142 better off a year if the energy grids were nationalised.

And households would have a further £113 if English water companies were in public hands.

Professor Hall said: said: “We’ve calculated that nationalising the electricity and gas transmission and distribution grids, the English water companies and Royal Mail, it adds up to £6.4 billion every year – that’s the equivalent of £5 per week for every household.

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“Based on intensive empirical research, this paper shows that public ownership of utilities would result in annual savings of just under £8bn – so nationalisation would pay for itself in less than seven years.

“Nationalisation would cost less than £50bn if shareholders are compensated for the amount they have actually invested, rather than costing the country nearly £200bn as claimed by the CBI last month.

“UK law does not require that they be paid the ‘market value’, and it is up to parliament to decide on a case-by-case basis the appropriate amount of compensation.”