New party Transform has released a new campaign video stating how they would take water into public ownership.
Transform: taking water into public ownership
Former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher sold off our water utilities and the following Conservative and Labour governments continued the policy.
Shareholders have been pocketing an average of £2bn per year in dividends made from increasing the cost of water. This is a scam.
Water companies are also under increasing scrutiny over dumping record sewage. In response, Transform wants to bring water utilities back into public hands. They explained how:
The line from Labour is that water nationalisation is too expensive and can’t be done. This is false. Transform have a plan … if a company continues to discharge waste into our aquatic ecosystems we’ll fine them up to their market value, making them worthless and cheap to bring into public ownership.
Transform was set up by the Breakthrough Party, Left Unity, Liverpool Community Independents, and other prominent individuals from the labour movement.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, meanwhile, went back on his leadership campaign pledge to nationalise water.
At the same time as paying huge shareholder dividends, Thames Water has said they must raise bills by 40% to pay for their investment costs.
So Transform noted:
Privatisation of the water industry has clearly failed.
Corporate swindle
Privatised water companies have been milking profits from our water utilities for years now. So Transform is right to assert that we shouldn’t pay out much to take them back into public ownership.
Water is an essential utility meaning we all must pay for it somehow. In other words, one cannot sell off the water supply without then renting it back at higher costs.
It’s the same with electricity or even internet connection, both of which are privatised.
Shareholders leeched £57bn off the need for water in England between 1991 and 2019. If water companies hadn’t been privatised, the public could have saved the money. Instead, people are now facing higher bills.
A Survation poll in 2022 found that 69% of people want water in public ownership. Yet neither of the main parties in our two party system support the policy. Instead, they are signing us up to yet another corporate swindle.
As Transform states, that must end.
Featured image via Transform Politics – YouTube
