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The UK’s water system is broken, and it’s no accident.
It’s been rigged to make sewage profitable, protect the polluters, and shut out the public.
And while our seas and rivers choke on waste, water company bosses and shareholders are cashing in.
We’re fighting back, building a movement to hold the polluters to account and demand a water system that works for people and planet, not profit and power. And you can join us.
In England, we’re facing a pivotal moment as the Clean Water Bill heads towards starting its journey through parliament.
This is the moment the law can change or lock us in the same privitised system that has prioritised profits over people. Only 1% of the public believe the current proposals from Government will fix the problem. Its time they proved us wrong.
We’re calling a full reset of our water system guided by 5 key principles:
- Legal Duty to Protect Public and Environmental Health – Water companies must operate under a clear legal duty to provide clean and safe drinking water and protect public health and the environment. This means prioritising action to protect the health of the millions of people who use the water and restoring natural environments.
- Ownership and Governance in the Public Interest – Water companies must be not-for-profit. Investment must be funded by longterm low-risk investors, ending the current exploitative profit-driven model. Only the transition of all water companies to not-for-profit models will deliver longterm stable investment and end the cycles of asset sweating, under-investment and pollution that characterise this for-profit system.
- Tough Independent Regulators – Regulators must have a clear and unambiguous legal duty to protect and restore public and environmental health, and be resourced, equipped and financed to enforce the law and hold polluters to account. The regulatory and enforcement system must be clearly beyond the influence of water companies and drive continuous performance improvement.
Operator self-monitoring must end immediately. - Democratic Decision-Making – Decisions about how water is planned, funded and managed should be taken on a regional and local level with the input of local stakeholders. Crucially, these stakeholders must have decision making power legislated for in regulation.
- Transparency – Water companies and regulators must reveal the truth about their operations across the business and provide the public with consistent, easily understandable information to protect water users’ health.
In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the sewage scandal is no better. In Wales, pollution is rife and regulators have failed to act. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, denial reigns and the truth about sewage spills remains hidden.
We need a water system across the UK that ends profit for pollution, puts public health first, delivers real environmental protection – and offers fair value for every customer.
Find out how to take action below – and let’s flush the polluters for good.
