Water campaigners back Green Party’s ‘no-compensation’ public ownership plan for water firms
"It is absolutely right that people want these water companies to not receive any compensation."
Members of the Green Party are gathering in Brighton for their autumn conference this weekend. Today (3 October), the party’s two deputy leaders Rachel Millward and Mothin Ali made their keynote speeches to the event.
Millward made a big announcement in hers – that the Green Party would take Thames Water and South East Water into public ownership with no compensation for shareholders.
Millward told the conference: “Water, the very stuff of life, uniquely found on this one planet in the whole wide universe, the stuff we’re made of, that replenishes us, cleans us, connects us and we sold it.
“And now we pay higher and higher bills that end up adding to some banks’ profits in Australia instead of building the infrastructure that we need.
She went on to add: “So Burnham’s 10-year plan of gentle threats and vague notions of control is not enough.
“Too many water companies have already failed. Right here in Sussex, we talk and find ourselves driving to pick up bottled water because nothing is coming out of our taps. Not a single major reservoir has been built in this country since the beginning of privatisation 35 years ago. Indeed.
“And so today the Green Party is announcing that we would immediately – not in 10 years, but before Christmas – bring South East Water and Thames Water back into public ownership. And we can do this. And we can do this at no cost to the taxpayer. 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.”
The Green Party has long supported taking water companies back into public ownership. However, the new element here is the confirmation that they would seek to do this without compensating shareholders.
The announcement has been welcomed by public ownership campaign group We Own It. Johnbosco Nwogbo, the organisation’s lead campaigner told LFF: “It’s absolutely right that the Green Party is focusing on the issue of water. The private water companies have failed households right across the United Kingdom, including right here where the Green Party conference is taking place.
“We Own It has been campaigning for public ownership of water and we’re we’re fully in support of what the Green Party is doing on this front and we’re hoping that this heaps the pressure on Andy Burnham who continues to talk about public control […] to kind of force him in the direction of doing what nine in 10 people in Britain support, which is bringing our water into public ownership. It can be done cheaply and fairly for customers in a way that sees the creditors take a haircut instead of putting all of that weight on customers.”
He would go on to add: “It is absolutely right that people want these water companies to not receive any compensation. In reality, they shouldn’t because they’ve already taken out almost £90 billion from the water industry.”
Nwogbo concluded: “If the government feels that they need to compensate them, they could bring our water in public ownership quite cheaply. Our research shows that it would cost no more than 15 billion pounds to bring water into public ownership. That is less than the water companies are already scheduled to take out in dividends and interest payments over the next five years.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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