An alliance made up of mainly Green and Independent MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn and Carla Denyer, has submitted an Early Day Motion calling for the public ownership of water.
The Government announced today (18/7) that it is bringing in measures to strengthen regulation of the water industry as it attempts to answer public anger over sewage polluting rivers, lakes and seas.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill announced in the King’s Speech includes regulations to make water company bosses face personal criminal liability for breaking laws on water quality, and new powers for regulator Ofwat to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met.
It also establishes a new code of conduct for water companies, allowing customers to summon board members and hold executives to account, and will introduce new powers to bring “automatic and severe” fines for transgressions.
But there are calls to go further, with an Early Day Motion submitted urging the government to bring water back into public ownership.
The motion, if agreed, would mean the House condemns the mismanagement and underinvestment which led to untreated sewage being discharged into English waterways for more than 3.6 million hours in 2023.
It also notes that water companies in England have incurred debts of more than £64 billion and paid out £78 billion in dividends since they were privatised debt-free in 1989.
Water companies also paid out £1.4 billion in dividends in 2022, even as 11 of them were fined in the same year for missing performance targets.
Read the Early Day Motion in full here.
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