Dirty Water, Death And Decline - The Inside Story Of UK's Water Privitazation Scandal
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England remains an anomaly across the world, as the only country apart from Chile where water, a natural resource, is owned by private companies for profit. The then Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, promised in 1989 that privatisation would deliver higher investment. But as far back as 2002, ministers were warned in a report, which has remained secret, that privatisation would allow large external private equity shareholders to load companies with debt, and the financial regulator Ofwat inevitably would lose any regulatory control.
Now, Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the human right to clean water, has singled out the English system for criticism, saying water should be managed as a publicly owned service, rather than run by private companies set up to benefit shareholders. Lambert, like others across the country who closely monitor the performance of their water companies, agrees with the UN rapporteur.
“The situation is not getting better, things are getting tangibly worse,” said Andy Tyerman, of Exmouth’s anti-sewage pollution campaign Escape. “South West Water set its own target for 2025 to be a four-star performer. But they have never been anything higher than two-star for more than 10 years. They set a target of no more than 20 sewage spills on average; last year there were 40 spills on average. We seem to be going backwards to the 1990s.”
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The Labour party took power in 2024 promising to be tough, banning bonuses for poor-performing companies. Its draft legislation promises the biggest shakeup of the water sector in a generation, focusing on tougher regulation with a single powerful body, ending the policy of water companies reporting their own pollution. But ministers are resisting any kind of public control of water, even for the most egregious performers, such as Thames Water, which provides water and sewerage services to 16 million customers across London and the south-east and is struggling with £20bn debts. In effect Thames is now being controlled by a consortium of global private equity firms and hedge funds, who say they will not comply with environmental rules for 15 years and are pushing to be let off any resulting pollution fines, something ministers are seriously considering.
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https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/28/dirty-water-death-and-decline-the-inside-story-of-a-privatisation-scandal