Feargal Sharkey is backing the petition
Campaigners have launched a petition calling for the government to hold a referendum to take the water industry into public ownership.
Ash Smith and Professor Peter Hammond of the campaign group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution have launched the petition. .
The petition reads: “Water is a basic human necessity; we believe our privatised system has failed, so the public should decide who owns and controls it”, before going on to say: “We believe that proposed government reforms to regulation show that water company owners are being favoured over the public, and this is not right in a democracy. A referendum would give the public back its voice about its water.”
England’s privatised water industry has faced increasing criticism in recent years over rising bills, creaking infrastructure and extensive sewage dumping in waterways.
Speaking on the launch of the petition, Smith said: “I think people are sick of being told they can’t have healthy rivers and seas, just because powerful financiers want to keep making money from our water bills. Our government is listening to them but not to us, so this is how we stop being victims and start fighting back.”
The petition has been backed by water campaigner and former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey. He said: “It’s unforgivable how the government is ignoring the evidence and the public, and saying water must stay privatised despite its catastrophic, expensive failure.
“Privatisation has already diverted over £85 billion of billpayers’ money to shareholders who added nothing but greed and financial engineering to what should be a water industry, not a cash machine. It’s time the public had a say in this, not just the bond markets and financiers currently pulling the government’s strings for their own ends, and that is why I am 100% behind this petition.”
Campaigners have argued that the government’s forthcoming Water Bill was shaped by a review process that spent more time consulting financiers and the water industry than the public. The bill has been heavily criticised for not including public ownership as an option for the future of the sector.
Anti privatisation campaign group We Own It has called for the government to ‘listen to the overwhelming majority’ of the public who want water in public ownership. The group’s lead campaigner Sophie Conquest told Left Foot Forward: “82% of us want to see water in public ownership. That’s because water privatisation has been a scam. Since water was sold off in 1989, shareholders have taken over £85 billion out of the pockets of billpayers”
“And what have we got in return? Sewage-filled rivers; eye-watering bills and a broken service. There is a clear choice to be made between financial interests of faraway shareholders, and the interests of the public and our environment. This government absolutely must listen to the overwhelming majority of us who want public ownership of water.”
At the time of writing, the petition has reached more than 7,000 signatures and is growing rapidly. As it is hosted on the official parliamentary petitions website, if it reaches 10,000 signatures it will receive a formal response from the government. If it reaches 100,000 it will be considered for a debate in parliament.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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