Britain’s broken water system is being milked dry by shareholders while customers pay the price

When water was privatised in 1989, one of the main reasons given was that shareholders would bring money into the sector.

Since 1989, shareholders have taken over £85 billion out of the water sector. They have ‘literally invested less than nothing’.

And the result? The failing water system to which we are subjected - at great expense - today.

Despite paying astronomical sums for this vital and natural resource, disruption has become the new norm. Outages, broken pipes and road closures are frequent. In Sussex and Kent earlier this month, schools had to shut; businesses had to close; and people couldn’t shower or flush their toilets. This was because of a water outage at South East Water - one that rapidly followed on the heels of a previous outage just before Christmas, caused by a failure at a treatment works.

In the case of South East water it was revealed - following summer outages in 2023 - that the company had spent more on interest and dividend payouts in the 2020-2022 period than it did on investing in its infrastructure.

This is not an anomaly but is, in fact, typical of a privatised water industry where profit for faraway shareholders will always be put before the needs of people and the environment.

Instead of being invested in the infrastructure that is needed to keep the system working, much of our money flows straight out of the sector, and into the pockets of private shareholders.

Even before this newest bill hike, recent polling revealed that over a third of Thames Water customers expected to be unable to afford the 35% increase.

Yet while billpayers struggle to scrape together enough money - with the average annual water bill now set to be £639 - shareholders will be enjoying a healthy flow of profits. Over the next five years, £22 billion of our money, as billpayers, will go straight into the pockets of private investors. This is double the amount they took between 2020-2024.

We must bring water into public hands. Not only is public ownership of water the norm - 90% of water in the world is publicly owned - but it is popular: the majority of us want to see water nationalised.

It can lower bills and protect our environment, by redirecting money away from shareholders and into infrastructure investment. It gives households, environmental groups and workers a real say on the boards of water companies.

That’s why We Own It are currently focusing on the collapsing Thames Water as the first step towards a publicly owned water industry. Thames Water’s creditors are currently negotiating with Ofwat for control of the utility, and are hoping to secure their profits by asking to pollute outside of legal limits until 2040.

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Sophie Conquest is Lead Campaigner at We Own It, which is asking every MP in the Thames Water region to sign their open letter to Ofwat and the Environment Secretary, demanding that they reject the creditors’ proposal.