We want over a million signatures because we want the government to understand we have had enough of being ignored, and we want our MPs from all parties to listen to their constituencies and to represent them in the fight for healthy water and a healthy water industry.
Hold a binding national referendum on whether the water industry should be returned to public ownership. Water is a basic human necessity; we believe our privatised system has failed, so the public should decide who owns and controls it
Private water companies have about 62 million captive customers whose bills have delivered over £85 Bn to shareholders; money that in public ownership could have been spent on fixing our infrastructure. No other country in the world has privatised water like this. We believe that proposed government reforms to regulation show that water company owners are being favoured over the public, and this is not right in a democracy. A referendum would give the public back its voice about its water.
Notes
This is about giving the public a choice and redressing the government and policy bias to those that financially benefit from privatisation.
- It opens up the debate about the public having a democratic say over water, Currently we are locked out of any decision-making and the future of water.
- This is not a petition to bring water into public ownership. There is already one of those, and we have presented the facts time and time again on public ownership (see People’s Commission on Water). It is calling for a debate that is based on fact not fiction.
