A group of 28 Labour MPs have urged Andy Burnham to go further in his plans to take control of England’s privately owned water companies to bring down bills and reverse environmental damage.
At the Labour Party conference last month, the Prime Minister said he would repeal Margaret Thatcher’s “ideological ban” on public ownership of water companies and herald in a “very different water system”.
England’s water companies have faced intense criticism for the high level of raw sewage discharged into rivers and seas and the Prime Minister has vowed to address the crisis.
Burnham has signalled more willingness to bring water companies into public ownership than Sir Keir Starmer and has promised to set out plans later this year.
However, the group of Labour MPs, led by Clive Lewis, have signed a letter saying they are concerned “the measures announced so far fall short” of meeting the public’s demand for publicly owned water.
They are calling on the Government to carry out a feasibility study on the different models of public ownership and recommend an option “which would best serve the country” when it comes to “cost, bills, investment and environmental outcomes”.
What has Andy Burnham promised on water?
The Prime Minister has vowed to repeal a law introduced in 1989 that prevents the government owning more than 3 per cent of shares in England’s private water companies.
While the move has been taken as a signal that Burnham is open to the idea of public ownership of firms, the Prime Minister has stopped short of vowing to take over any companies.
Further detail is expected as part of a 10-year plan for the country that Burnham has vowed to publish later this year.
In their letter, which is addressed to the Environment Secretary Angela Eagle, the Labour MPs said the plan must include a commitment to “an independent feasibility study of the models of public ownership”.
They say the study should look at different models such as nationalisation, municipal and mutual models, and assess what the impact would be on areas such as lowering customers’ bills and tackling the sewage crisis.
It follows on an evidence session held on Tuesday by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which looked at the different models of public ownership used internationally.
What are the different models of public ownership?
England is the only country in the world with a fully privatised water system. There are a variety of other models that other countries use, including nationalisation and public-private partnerships. Here are some of the options:
- Nationalisation Water infrastructure is owned and controlled by the national government. This model is followed by the Scottish Government, which fully owns Scottish Water.
- Municipalisation Water infrastructure is owned orcontrolled by a local government or municipality. This happens in Paris, where the city oversees a public water company, Eau de Paris. In other parts of France local authorities contract this work out to private companies, but maintain oversight.
- Mutualisation Water services are owned by their customers, who have a say in how the organisation is run. An example of this is Welsh Water, which operates as a non-profit with no shareholders.
“This evidence session wouldn’t even have been happening without the groundswell of support for public ownership. The pressure this has created has pushed the debate on from whether we replace the current privatised mess, to how we replace it,” Lewis said.
He added: “This letter calls on the Government to be the one that fixes water for good. The Prime Minister must make public ownership the ultimate goal for water in his 10-year plan, and commit to a feasibility study that sets out how we get there.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister and Environment Secretary have been clear that nothing is off the table when it comes to our generational reforms to the water system.
“We will deliver a strengthened Water Bill to increase public control, deliver cleaner waters, fairer bills and stronger accountability, including removing the historic cap on government ownership of water company shares.”
The Labour MPs calling for public ownership of water companies
Clive Lewis MP
Sadik al-Hassan MP
Barry Gardiner MP
Paul Davies MP
Ian Byrne MP
Rachael Maskell MP
Imran Hussain MP
Afzal Khan MP
Simon Opher MP
Tony Vaughan MP
Chris Hinchliff MP
Richard Quigley MP
Lee Barron MP
Ian Lavery MP
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Kim Johnson MP
Cat Eccles MP
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP
Paula Barker MP
Mohamed Yasin MP
Alex Sobel MP
Will Stone MP
Apsana Begum MP
Diane Abbott MP
Luke Myer MP
Jonathan Hinder MP
Sean Woodcock MP
Allison Gardner MP