Petition: Hold A Referendum To Bring The Water Industry Into Public Ownership (Part 3)
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Emma Hardy is the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). She has recognised that the current model – relating to private water companies – was broken. That’s a small step in the right direction. We now need to step up the pressure on MPs to ensure that the water industry is initially returned to public ownership.
Picture Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Emma_Hardy#/media/File:Official_portrait_of_Emma_Hardy_MP,_2026_ (cropped).jpg (Fair Use)
REGULAR READERS will know that we’ve been championing & covering the progress of a petition which called for the water industry to be returned to public ownership.
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We did this because, as National Liberals, we believe that any industry – that could be said to be vital to the national interest – should initially come into public ownership. And we feel that the water industry is vital to the national interest.
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In April, and with the above in mind, we became aware of the petition – https://nationalliberal.org/
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It called for a binding national referendum to be held ‘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.
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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.’
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GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
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Under the rules relating to petitions, gaining 10,000 signatures ensures a response from the government department responsible for the petition topic.
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However, gaining 100,000 signatures more-or-less guarantees that it’ll be debated in Parliament.
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At the time we thought that there was a good chance that the petition would hit the 100,000 mark. We also noted that change wouldn’t happen overnight – there are so many vested interests at work – but the petition & any subsequent debate was a step in the right direction.
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Two months ago, we followed up this initial report with an update – https://nationalliberal.org/
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DEBATE – BUT NO VOTE
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A date (14th September) was set for the petition to be debated at Westminster – although it wouldn’t include a parliamentary vote on the matter.
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The debate was subsequently held at the beginning of this week, by which time over 200,000 people had signed the petition.
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It’ll probably come as no surprise that the Seventy MPs present didn’t agree with the need for a referendum. However, on the plus side there was general agreement that the current model was “broken.”
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TOUGHER REGULATION
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This was confirmed by Emma Hardy (Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – basically the ‘Water Minister’) who stated:
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“For too long pollution, poor performance and financial instability in the water industry has left customers and communities to pay the price.
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“This situation can’t continue – which is why this government is giving the public more control and helping keep bills as low as possible.
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“The prime minister has been clear that the failures of the past must be corrected.
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“We are bringing in tougher regulation, stronger enforcement and greater accountability, so water companies deliver for customers and the environment.”
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HOT AIR OR ACTION?
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What this means in practical terms remains to be seen. We’re actually in two minds as to what’ll happen. Will all this talk simply remain hot air – or will Labour eventually take action?
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As we noted earlier, change wouldn’t happen overnight. There is still a very long way to go until this issue is properly resolved. Therefore, the only viable option is to keep applying pressure on the government. And that means building on the progress made so far.
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We’d therefore appeal to all readers to keep promoting – by whatever means possible – the need to return the water industry to public ownership.
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Let’s get to it!
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• A RECORD OF the Westminster Hall debate (held on Monday 14th can be found here: https://hansard.parliament.
Date: September 17, 2026
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