Labour MP Paul Davies, who led a Westminster Hall debate, said scrapping the “disastrous” privatised model could also help restore public trust in the sector
Anger over sewage pollution now means more than eight in 10 people back returning water industry to public control(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Returning the water industry to public ownership could save £22billion five years, MPs have heard.
Labour MP Paul Davies, who led a Westminster Hall debate, said ditching the “disastrous” privatised model would also go some way to restoring the public’s faith in the sector.
It comes amid growing angry about the stare of the industry since it was sold off by Tory PM Margaret Thatcher, since when tens of billions have been dished out to investors and owners – most abroad.
Yet over that time, customer bills have soared and the country has been left with a sewage scandal.
The scale of the controversy was hammered home in hard-hitting Channel 4 factual drama Dirty Business earlier this year, which included the fight by campaigners Ash Smith and Peter Hammond to expose the truth about the scale of sewage pollution.
Mr Smth is behind a petition, which now has more than 200,000 signatures,
to hold a binding national referendum on whether the water industry should be returned to public ownership.
MPs lined up to debate the issue, and to highlight failures by water companies in their areas.
Mr Davies, Labour MP for Colne Valley, said: “For too long, our water industry has been in the hands of shareholders, rather than the public who pay and rely on its delivery. There is huge frustration out there.”
He went on: “The private model for water has been far from a success,. It has been an economic, environmental and public health failure.
“Private companies have paid out around £83billion in dividends, while loading the companies with debt.
“And crucial infrastructure has been left to fail. Not a single new reservoir has been built since 1992. And water companies have seen the waste of around three billion litres of water a day through leaky pipes.”
Mr Davies said he welcomed measures announced by the Labour government to tackle failures with the current model, he warned they did not go far enough.
“I am concerned that the government has failed to address the fundamental error of the past four decades,” he told fellow MPs.
A Yougov survey has found that 82% of Brits feel the water industry should be publicly owned. up from 59% in 2017.
“Public ownership would mean that £22billion earmarked for shareholder returns and interest over next the five years goes instead to repairing our broken water infrastructure, paying off debts and letting water company staff do their job properly,” Mr Davies said
“It beggars belief to see the money is being siphoned off from the water sector into private hands, and many shareholders not even in the UK, whereas we see our citizens suffering really badly.”
He highlighted examples from other countries where water has been brought back under public control including Paris in 2010, which led to a range of social subsidies being introduced.
It comes as private creditors for crisis hit Thames Water try to prevent the debt laden company coming under a form of temporary nationalisation.
Fleur Anderson, Labour MP for Putney: “My constituents are very angry about Thames Water. They are paying more but getting less because of the model we have,” that the company needs to be put into special administration.”
Martin Wrigley, Liberal Democrat MP for Newton Abbot, called for water companies to be mutually owned. He also warned regulator Ofwat “does not have the teeth” to tackle failures by the water companies.
Mr Wrigley’s constitiuency covers Dawlish, which also featured in Dirty Business after the death of eight year-old Heather Preen in 1999. Her mother, Julie Maughan, believes she contracted E. coli after coming into contact with raw sewage on the beach.
Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, claimed the call for the return of water to public ownership crossed the political divide. “This taps into a deep. public anxiety abiut the future of this countrt and this planet,” he said.
