99% of Labour conference attendees back public ownership of Thames Water in straw poll
99% support
The overwhelming majority of attendees at this year’s Labour Party Conference backed taking Thames Water into public ownership in a straw poll conducted outside the event in Liverpool.
Anti-privatisation campaign group We Own It ran the survey by asking people arriving at the conference to put balls into a box with their preference for what should happen to the ailing water firm. The options were taking it into public ownership or handing it over to water firms.
99 out of the 100 votes cast were for public ownership.
Among those who participated in the survey were eight Labour MPs. These were:
- Peter Prinsley
- Feryal Clark
- Bambos Charalambous
- Neil Duncan-Jordan
- Rachael Maskell
- Ian Byrne
- Navendu Mishra
- Lorraine Beavers
Thames Water – which has a debt pile of approximately £20 billion – has been on the brink of collapse for some time. The firm’s creditors – a group of US hedge funds – have been negotiating to take control of the company, and stop it from falling into special administration.
However, both water quality campaigners and anti-privatisation groups see special administration as a route to taking Thames Water into long term public ownership.
Sophie Conquest – Lead Campaigner at We Own It – said: “Hedge funds or households? The choice really is that simple.”
“This government can choose to sell off one of our most vital resources to US billionaires, or they can take it into public hands and run it in the interests of households, workers and our environment”
“82% of us want to see water in public hands. MPs – in increasing numbers – are calling for public ownership. Andy Burnham himself has said that Thames Water should be nationalised. The consensus on publicly owned water has never been clearer.”
“It is also clear continued privatisation with a different aesthetic – whether that be increasing regulation or handing oversight to local leaders – will simply not suffice. Burnham promised an end to 40 years of neoliberalism. Anything less than bringing water into permanent public ownership would be a grave betrayal of that promise.”
“Burnham took the buses to court in Greater Manchester and won. People want our Prime Minister to continue taking on private profit in the interests of the public. Bringing Thames Water into permanent public ownership is a huge opportunity to do just that.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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