I don't normally repost campaign emails here, but I feel that the Bill that Clive Lewis MP is promoting on the water industry is important enough to do so. As a result, I repost this mail from Compass here, hoping you might provide support on this issue. Click any of the bold red sections to reach their material on this.
|
The sewage crisis is a national disgrace — but right now, we have an unmissable chance to do something about it. |
|
We all know our water system is broken. Raw sewage floods our rivers and seas. Our infrastructure crumbles while private companies rake in billions. It's our water, and we paid for infrastructure with our bills, and yet we had no say. But in just a few weeks we'll see the biggest opportunity to fix our broken system in decades. On 28th March, Clive Lewis MP's Water Bill is being debated in Parliament. This Bill is an unmissable chance to put public ownership on the table and create a national conversation about how our water is managed. Make sure your MP doesn't miss this crucial debate. |
|
The statistics are staggering. In 2023, raw sewage was dumped into our rivers and seas at least 464,056 times—an average of 1,271 times a day. That's a 50% increase from 2022. The government claims to be tackling this crisis, yet its Commission on Water is refusing to engage in questions of governance or public ownership - something 82% of the British public want. Instead of listening to the public, they are listening to hedge fund managers and executives—the same people who profit from this disaster. Regulation alone won't fix this. That's tinkering at the edges, and it will not resolve the core issue. As The i recently revealed, the new Water (Special Measures) Bill, supposedly designed to clean up the private water system, will not stop sewage dumping in National Parks, never mind other less protected vulnerable ecosystems. 90% of the world's water is public. The evidence is clear. The will of the people is clear. The government cannot ignore this democratic demand. |
|
We have a chance to use our voice. Clive Lewis's Water Bill will be debated for the first time on 28th March. We need as many MPs there as possible representing the interests of their constituents and their environment. We only have 7 weeks left. No matter their stance on water, your MP needs to hear from you. We want every single MP to be flooded with emails about water. The debate falls on a Friday, typically a constituency day for MPs.They won't attend unless they know their constituents care. Your email is more powerful than you think. When MPs see an issue dominating their inbox, they take notice. They show up. We've already had almost 4,500 letters sent in just a few days. Will you write to your MP today to make sure they attend the debate on the day? |
|
Thank you for being part of this movement. Together, we can turn the tide. |
|
Onwards, Lena, Compass |
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Excellent proposal.
It will be interesting to see how those controlling Starmer (I have nicknamed them the PG Tips crew (a bunch of chimps) led by McSweeney) frames this as a lefty/woke sort of thing. I’m sure they will try.
However, (re?) nationalisation leaves another question unanswered, do the water companies have the corporate capacity (or indeed the engineering capacity) to “do something”. “Something” means both conventional short term stuff (fixed/maintain sewage works in poor condition) and medium/long term stuff that takes pressure off sewage works when it – rains. It is clear that the current owners – nomadic war machines (= private equity) have zero interest in such matters.
Hello Mike. I know a number of good engineers who work in the water industry, so there’s no shortage of technical capability and likely sufficient capacity. It needs proper direction.
The question of capacity and having the resources to actually do things is an interesting one, because the chances of having the people with the right skills in place tends to be low on the agenda. I would say they probably don’t have the people to do what was promised years ago.
In housing, Labour talk about building 1.5 million new homes, which is basically the same figure the Tories always came up with and failed to achieve. When it comes to homes, the state doesn’t really build anything as such, because it is private house builders who do all the building. Do they have the people to do that?
Then there is the thorny issue of planning permission, often thrown out there as a problem. Actually, this is a red herring.
Over 1.1 million homes with planning permission waiting to be built – new LGA analysis (this was new in 2021).
https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/over-1-million-homes-planning-permission-waiting-be-built-new-lga-analysis
It’s the private developers that are sitting on things. Either they don’t want to build, or they don’t have the people. They have the permission.
It is simple the builders are sitting on the sites to keep the house prices high.
Thanks for this link Richard. I also signed the We Own It petition. I wish there were posters we could put in our windows.
Got to go work, so I’m with Mike 100%, the capacity issue is HUGE and we are feeling effects on building sites everywhere.
Listeners of the Archers will have heard last night’s episode when the brook has overflowed after very heavy rain, and flooded one of the farms with sewage, entering the dairy and ruining all the cheese etc. and presumably some of the land. This I think is the first time a story about sewage has been dramatised, so it will be interesting to see where it goes.
Does the fact Thames Water will run out of money in March mean it is technically no longer a going concern?
My understanding was that at annual accounts time you had to show enough funding to cover the next year of operations.
Funny how the outsized rewards these people reap are always justified by the “risk” they supposedly take, then when the poo blocks the storm drain the public has to pick up the tab for clearing it up. They clearly aren’t managing the operation properly, so it should be allowed to fail. There should be no cost for the subsequent nationalisation because losing their investment was the risk being taken.
I’m so sick of all the nonsense and lies.
There was a warning in the last accounts that they may not be a going concern.
It is not just Thames
I’ve just received my water bill from Northumbria Water which shows an increase of almost 40% on 2024. The water tax I have no choice but to pay has now doubled in three years.
We are all paying the price of parasitic, rentier capitalism run rampant. Years of under (or no) investment with our bills being collected and redistributed upwards to shareholders and “investors”. The classic private equity model of sweating assets and stripping out all value of which Thames is just the most egregious example.
And what will LINO do? As always sweet FA other than prostrating themselves at the feet of the City
Mine is only 26% higher, I think
And all to guarnatee profits to failed businesses.
Thank you.
AS: “And what will LINO do? As always sweet FA other than prostrating themselves at the feet of the City.”
The incentives dictate that outcome. They know they will lose in 2029, so why alienate the people you need to fund your retirement.
Thank you, Richard. Will do.
Dunnit.
I will get the question that nearly every media outlet will ask at a time like this, not because I believe it is a valid question but because it irritates me so much, “how will we afford this?”.
If the industry is bankrupt – it is costless.
And then answer me this question: can you drink money? No? Then we have to find money to deliver water. It really is not hard, is it?
Richard, I think you misinterpreted my comment, it was a poor attempt at a joke I must admit.
OK
Sorry
The Guardian Reported yesterday
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/10/how-army-of-advisers-is-making-millions-from-thames-water-loan-court-case
Millions to be made by advisors, lawyers, accountants and PR companies, The figure of £200 million is quoted, in this restructuring round. Some of that will find it’s way to smoozing journalists and other influencers.
The water companies represent a cash cow to the City of London, and Starmer will do nothing that looks like Socialism to keep the City happy.
Thank you, Martin.
I work in the City and must strongly disagree. We love socialism. Just for me, not for thee.
The City and Wall Street and the US war machine are the biggest welfare junkies on the planet. They love socialism for the rich / corporate welfare. Thatcher loved such socialism, too, vide the privatisation fees, undervaluation of taxpayer assets and juicing up of the stock market.
That’s what I don’t get about the left. They don’t spell it out like it is and turn the tables.
BTW, such lines are provided to leftist politicians, unions etc. by insider sympathisers like me. They are never used. We have given up.
Tboze are the lines that have to be promoted. I want to work on that in the next year.
Correct me if I am wrong but as I understand it if a private business is bankrupt then it is possible for the owners to sell it for a nominal sum, usually £1.
If this is correct why don’t Labour just pat £1 and take these failures back into public ownership, with no compensation to the investors, who have been bleeding these companies dry?
I suggest they could
By the end of this we’ll be paying for any new infrastructure that actually gets built four times over:
1. When we paid for it in our bills and the companies instead paid it out in dividends and bonuses.
2. When they borrowed enough money to build the infrastructure (much of it from their owners) then gave it out in dividends and bonuses, saddling the companies with unpayable debt, which consumers will have to fork out for.
3. When they make consumers actually pay for the infrastructure in bills, but it ends up belonging to the water companies.
4. When they raise charges in line with the increased value of the infrastructure they now own.
I think it’s not quite as you portray it
That does not add up in a number of ways
I’m a member of Compass and have been following this campaign closely and am in the process of promoting it locally. It’s worth noting that the Government have set up an independent commission on water due to report in the summer.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/governments-launch-largest-review-of-sector-since-privatisation
I asked Compass why then the need for Clive Lewis’s Bill and they said that the Government commission has explicitly ruled out taking water back in public ownership. Instead they are looking for more private investment and better regulation / legal obligations as the solution to the problem. I found this context helpful in making sense of Clive’s Private Members Bill.
Never mind the money from our inflated water bills / tax, Boxed in by their fiscal rules, defunct economic model and laser focus on growth the only solution that the Government can identify to the problem of water, of growth and just about everything else, is private investment as obviously in their frame of reference there is no public money available.
I feel like the Government is trapped in an escape room game with the solution staring them in the face – but they are incapable of seeing it.
Thank you
Thanks – I’ve sent it to all of my neighbours. Our back garden and car-park is constantly being flooded by Thames Water and my MP knows all about it and has been very active in…not achieving much. My MP is Wes Streeting.