The Cunliffe report proves it: water must be nationalised ...Middle East

This has been a dire year for the privatised water companies. Some, like Thames Water, have teetered on the brink of collapse; they have hiked bills by an average of 27 per cent (about eight times the rate of inflation), and serious water pollution incidents increased by 60 per cent.

But the Government established the Cunliffe review while ruling out any systematic change. And here we are today with a laughable report recommending abolishing one quango (Ofwat), while establishing another regulator in its place. Even more ridiculously, this new regulator will take over the responsibility of water companies to monitor and report any sewage spills or pollution incidents – so the public will now pay costs once borne by water companies!

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This is the story of privatisation: nationalise the losses, privatise the profits. You can apply it everywhere from energy (where we pay some of the highest prices in Europe) to the railways (where fares go up and reliability goes down).

Thatcher’s Chancellor Nigel Lawson wrote in his memoirs, “once it was clear the regulatory and environmental responsibilities would remain in the public sector, privatisation never looked seriously at risk”. In other words, the government agreed to nationalise the costs, and only privatise the profit-making parts of the water industry.

In the first 17 years of privatisation, water bills increased by 39 per cent above the rate of inflation. A Greenwich University study covering that period found “operating costs have remained roughly constant in real terms: the increase in customers’ bills is almost entirely due to the various elements associated with the capital – capital charges, interest, and profits.”

The costs of privatisation are driving inflation and weakening our economy. When people are spending more as a proportion of their incomes on bills they have less to spend in the job-creating parts of the economy – shops, pubs and restaurants, and their supply chains.

No wonder the Undertones frontman turned water campaigner Feargal Sharkey has called for Reed to resign.

Pretending that taking public ownership is prohibitively expensive is a lie. If water companies had not been allowed to keep hiking prices and had been forced to invest to prevent pollution (i.e. if they had been properly regulated), they would have gone bust.

This new Labour government has let people down. It has slumped to just 22 per cent in the polls and has an approval rating of just 12 per cent.

Instead, people are feeling worse off, and let down.

Hence then, the article about the cunliffe report proves it water must be nationalised was published today ( Monday 21/07/2025 - 08:35 PM ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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