Our water system is in crisis and people want the government to bring water into permanent public ownership.
Thames Water is collapsing with £14 billion of debt, yet in 1989 it started out as a privatised company with no debt of any kind.
This company has spent the last 34 years profiteering at the public’s expense. The company paid £2.7 billion in dividends and in 2022 paid out £37 million of “internal dividends” to its parent company.
The largest stake in Thames Water owned by a Canadian pension fund, other shareholders include companies owned by the governments of Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and China.
The government must protect the public from any mess caused by these financial institutions, that means protecting billpayers as well as our water and rivers.
Thérèse Coffee MP, Conservative, Secretary of State for the Environment has failed to do this. Publicly owned Scottish Water has spent £72 more per household per year (35per cent more) than English water companies.
If England had invested at the same rate, an extra £28 billion would have been spent to solve problems like leaks and sewage.
There is enormous support for public ownership with even most Conservative voters believing that water should be publicly owned.
With 90 % of the world’s water in public ownership, privatised water in the UK makes no sense. It’s time to bring water back into public hands.
Sorie Sesay
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