As the rivers fill with sewage, corporate shareholders fill their pockets—and the government looks the other way. A letter in the Guardian and a powerful post by campaigner Feargal Sharkey throw into sharp relief a growing public consensus: the privatised water industry is a grotesque failure, and nothing short of full public ownership via nationalisation will end this national scandal.

Feargal Sharkey responds to a “blistering” open letter

Since water was sold off to private hands in England and Wales in 1989, companies have racked up at least £64 billion in debt, paid at least £78 billion in dividends to shareholders, and chronically under-invested in vital infrastructure. The results are toxic—literally. Raw sewage is regularly discharged into rivers and seas. Leaks waste billions of litres of water annually. Bills for households have risen by 40% in real terms.

And yet, as the Guardian letter writers Prof Becky Malby, Dr Kate Bayliss, Prof Frances Cleaver, and Prof Ewan McGaughey astutely note, “the public has already paid” many times over. We have paid through inflated bills, tax subsidies, and the costs of environmental destruction. Why should we pay again to take these failed companies back into public hands?

Moreover, as Feargal Sharkey exposed, successive governments have been pulling the wool over the public’s eyes:

First govt claimed they got that ludicrous £100bn to nationalise the water industry came from a think tank report. Then it claimed didn’t because the idea was totally rubbish, transpired the report had been bought and paid for by water companies.

Then it claimed it had been…

— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) August 5, 2025

The professors expanded upon this in the Guardian. They noted that:

The £100bn figure is the regulatory capital value (RCV) of the water companies, used by Ofwat and calculated using the market value of water companies in 1989, adding capital spending and depreciation since, multiplied by the retail prices index. Two water companies listed on the stock exchange have market values around half their RCV. KKR merely offered £4bn in its takeover bid for Thames Water, which has an RCV of £21bn, before it pulled out in June.

So, the whole idea that it would cost £100bn to nationalise water companies like Thames Water is nothing more than a con to bail out shareholders and fat-cat bosses.

A fair price to the public—not the polluters

In the words of the letter, water companies “should be taken into public ownership at minimal cost.” This is not radical; it is fair.

Moreover, as Feargal Sharkey pointed out, Labour is failing to act:

Oh look, yet another water company fined for polluting a river and killing fish and does any of it make a blind bit of difference?

Of course not.

Now what about that “oh but we’re going to send water company executives to jail”, any chance of that happening?

Of course not. https://t.co/nXVSMVmS7M

— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) August 1, 2025

When companies fail, they are bought for a symbolic £1, or handed over to administrators. The idea that we must pay “market value” for broken, polluting monopolies is absurd. These firms have not only failed to deliver their basic responsibilities—they have actively harmed the environment, endangered public health, and defrauded the public purse.

Moreover, as the letter reminds us, the government holds ultimate responsibility. Ofwat, the supposed regulator, has allowed this scandal to fester. Ministers from both major parties have refused to act meaningfully. The time for polite reform is over. These companies must be brought into public ownership, without compensating those who’ve already extracted their pound of flesh.

Water is a basic human right, not a commodity to be traded on the stock exchange. Yet privatisation has turned it into a vehicle for private profit at public expense.

Working-class communities pay extortionate bills while foreign investors and fat-cat bosses reap the rewards. Sharkey’s words are a powerful indictment not only of the water industry, but of a political class that continues to enable its excesses.

The case for public ownership

Nationalising water isn’t just about stopping pollution or holding bad actors accountable—it’s about democratic control. It means reinvesting profits into the system rather than into Cayman Islands accounts. It means transparency, accountability, and a service run for people and planet, not shareholders.

Public ownership already works, as Feargal Sharkey has repeatedly said.

In Scotland, water remains publicly owned and has consistently outperformed the English system in customer satisfaction, leakage rates, and environmental outcomes. Across Europe, more than 235 cities—including Paris and Berlin—have re-municipalised water after failed privatisations. The tide is turning globally; England is just being left behind.

Let’s be clear: we’re not asking for a revolution. We’re demanding common sense. Water is essential for life. It is a natural monopoly. There is no “market” in water supply—it’s a public service masquerading as a private business. Keeping it in private hands is ideological dogma, not practical policy.

Enough excuses. Listen to Feargal Sharkey.

The government’s response to water company failures has been pathetic. Ministers wag fingers, regulators issue limp fines, and meanwhile sewage pours into our rivers. There is no political will to challenge the financial interests propping up this broken system.

But the public knows better. Poll after poll shows that a majority support nationalising water. People are not uninformed—they see the rot, smell the stench, and understand the injustice.

It’s time politicians caught up. The current government should stop defending a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. And if they won’t act, the next one must.

Let us heed the letter in the Guardian, amplify Feargal Sharkey’s cry, and take back what should never have been sold.

Water is life. It belongs to all of us.

Featured image via the Canary