By Murad Qureshi

Thames Water’s demise has been a long time coming, ever since water privatisation in 1989.

It’s become one of the worst water companies for sewage leakages. You need only walk along the Thames in west London to see this clearly. Data released by the Environment Agency shows a rise of 136 percent in the number of sewage spills by Thames Water lasting more than 24 hours.

Water leakages amount to an astonishing fifth of the volume of water that Thames Water pipes through the capital. This has resulted in records levels of road works on the streets of Central London and even caused surface water floods in areas like Maida Vale.

Thames Water has also created a mountain of debt – £18 billion since 1989, when its debt was wiped out ahead of privatisation, so that 25 pence in every pound is taken from customers’ water bills and used to service the debt. And now the boss of Thames Water says that bills need to rise by 40 percent by 2030 in order to continue to let shareholders to take out dividends, while remaining off the hook on sewage leakages, regulation fines and restrictions.

Thames Water ought to be allowed to go bankrupt and then be run by an administrator. Of course, the shareholders would lose their equity, but as they have taken so much cash out, they deserve no sympathy. Bond holders would face a partial loss, but that’s capitalism, and it should not affect the water supply.

For sure, it won’t be so simple. This is a total failure of privatisation and regulation by OFWAT. Why on earth was the company sold state assets on the cheap and then allowed to borrow billions and take those billions out as dividends? These ‘genius’ financial engineers were much too smart for ministers or regulators.

The privatisation of water in the late 1980s was a piece of rampant neoliberalism. Nowhere else in the world runs water the way that England does – it is an extreme ideological experiment. Water is a natural monopoly. Thames Water’s 15 million ‘customers’ have no choice as consumers.

Right now the government seems to be planning to bail out Thames Water, by changing the rules on water company insolvency to allow temporary ​nationalisation and later returning it to private hands without cost. This would be financially irresponsible. It’s also morally wrong to appease global capital   and its allegiance to trickle-down economics. It’s an outrage and an unsustainable situation for people and the environment.

So here’s an idea for our times: nationalise it and then mutualise it with millions of households as shareholders. Seven out of ten people believe water belongs in public ownership. So let’s not just bail out Thames Water, but take it back permanently. Now that would be appropriate way to end 14 years of Tory rule and see the end of Thatcher’s neoliberal economic legacy – a truly new dawn. 

Murad Qureshi was a member of the London Assembly from 2004 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2021.

A Momentum spokesperson said: “Thames Water embodies the failures of the Tories’ water privatisation. Millions siphoned off to shareholders while leaks soar, rivers are polluted, and bills rise. Not a penny more of public money should go to this failing company. Labour should be calling for immediate nationalisation without compensation, not tinkering around the edges with bosses’ bonuses.”

Suggested actions from We Own It:

• Sign and share our petition (if you haven’t already) to bring Thames Water into permanent public ownership. If you don’t live in the area, we would still appreciate the solidarity!
• Read our new open letter calling on the government to permanently nationalise Thames Water, also signed by brilliant anti-sewage campaigners! 🧜‍♀️
• Sign and share our petition to take shares not fines when private water companies pollute our rivers and seas
• Check out our model below for what Thames Water could look like in public ownership. If you’re on twitter you can share it here and you can also read the detail on our website.

Main mage: https://www.flickr.com/photos/70023venus2009/53157914478/. Author: 70023venus2009. CC BY-ND 2.0 DEED Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic