Green Party calls on government to nationalise water companies with no compensation for shareholders
The Greens are confident they could put Thames Water and South East Water into special administration and counter any legal challenges
The Green Party’s deputy leader Rachel Millward has today announced at its annual party conference that the party would nationalise the water companies with no compensation for shareholders.
Millward said that the government needs to bring water companies back into public ownership now and criticised Andy Burnham for delaying action on the issue.
Burnham has said he will legislate to repeal a ban on the public ownership of water companies, promising a ten-year route to “a very different water system” for the country.
In her speech at Green Party conference this morning, Millward said: “Burnham’s 10 year plan of gentle threats and vague notions of control is not enough.”
She added that Thames Water and South East have failed, “they have not fulfilled their statutory duty. Right here in Sussex, we find ourselves for days on end having to drive to pick up bottled water because nothing is coming out of our taps.
“Not a single major reservoir has been built since the beginning of privatisation, despite councils giving planning permission.
“So stop this talk of 10 year plans and putting them on notice. We need public ownership now, and we have all the tools we need to make it happen. Forget compensation for shareholders and creditors, these are insolvent companies. It’s time to take them back.”
Asked how the Green Party would deal with potential legal challenges from water companies, a spokesperson said: “As long as we were confident that we’d be able to put a case together with the lawyers for why they’re not delivering its statutory duties and you’d use that pathway to prove the company’s insolvent and has got zero value.”
The Green spokesperson said that while with some water companies there is a “bigger legal grey area”, with Thames Water and South East Water it is “so clearcut that they’re not delivering their statutory duties”, so the party would feel confident about putting them into SAR.
In August, The Times reported that Burnham had shelved plans to put struggling utility Thames Water into administration amid concerns about the cost and the legal risk involved.
Burnham’s team subsequently denied this, stating that all options were still on the table.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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