The main characters from Channel 4’s Dirty Business have started the fight to let the public decide who owns our water industry. Ash Smith and Prof. Peter Hammond, of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, played by renowned actors David Thewlis and Jason Watkins, have launched an official government petition to hold a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership. The factual drama exposed the complicity of the regulators, the criminality of the water companies and the deadly health risk to the public. The petition is unreservedly backed by Feargal Sharkey, campaigner and musician.
Ash Smith says, “I think people are sick of being told they can’t have healthy rivers and seas, just because powerful financiers want to keep making money from our water bills. Our government is listening to them but not to us, so this is how we stop being victims and start fighting back.”
A referendum is not a radical ask. It is the bare minimum in a democracy when 60 million people have no choice over who controls the water that comes out of their taps.
“It’s unforgivable how the government is ignoring the evidence and the public, and saying water must stay privatised despite its catastrophic, expensive failure. Privatisation has already diverted over £85 billion of billpayers’ money to shareholders who added nothing but greed and financial engineering to what should be a water industry, not a cash machine. It’s time the public had a say in this, not just the bond markets and financiers currently pulling the government’s strings for their own ends, and that is why I am 100% behind this petition,” comments Feargal Sharkey.
The Government’s forthcoming Water Bill was shaped by a review process that spent more time consulting financiers and the water industry than the public it is supposed to serve and offers no referendum, no public ownership review and no meaningful say for the people footing the bill. Leading economists and accountants say ownership change can be achieved as little as zero cost to billpayers.
England needs five billion more litres of water a day by 2050. The countries that have met challenges like this have one thing in common, in that the public had a genuine say. In England, they have had none, also presenting a looming national water security risk.
Supporters say the issue ultimately comes down to decisions based on evidence, not influence. A referendum would provide a clear democratic mandate on one of the most fundamental questions facing the country: whether the water industry should remain in private hands or be in modern, public ownership.
Sign the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640
