Call on Government to hold a referendum on water ownership

Sun 26 Apr, 13:08

I interviewed an environmental journalist a few years ago about her then-new book, "Water Always Wins". It's definitely worth a read and following Erica's work.

https://ericagies.com

Fri 24 Apr, 17:31

Professor Sir Dieter Helm sets out clearly the need for the Government to stop pretending that a market based solution will sort out Thames Water and calls for the company to be placed under special administration.   We can't live without clean water.

https://dieterhelm.co.uk/publications/the-thames-water-market-led-solution/

Fri 24 Apr, 10:17

Following the meeting at Shipton Under Wychwood last night with WASP I am putting the link to this petition at the top of this conversation. Please sign if you care about the future of our water industry and our rivers,

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640

Thu 23 Apr, 11:09 (last edited on Thu 23 Apr, 11:11)

Ofwat's Board is split - urge them to make the right decision about Thames Water. 

https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/ofwats-board-is-split-urge-them-to-make-the-right-decision-about-thames-water

And look forward to seeing everyone at Shipton UW tonight !

https://www.charlbury.info/events/10825

Wed 15 Apr, 20:45

Yes Ian, I got an email confirming that he had signed the open letter.  I also got a longer letter which was a bit more positive than the sad response that Rosemary received.  My problem is that I don't think this problem will ever be sorted out until it is taken out of private ownership.  We are viewed by them as fixed, long-term, cash cows with no choice rather than people dependent on clean, safe water.  In the long-term it will cost us less to let them walk away.

Wed 15 Apr, 17:03

The 'We Own It' campaign has borne fruit: I emailed Shaun Woodcock and received a very speedy and detailed reply in which he confirmed that he was signing the open letter to Ofwat and the Environment Secretary. 

His email also made the point very strongly that water companies should not be able to pay dividends while receiving assistance from taxpayers and that there is a case for reclaiming some of the profits made from crippling the companies with debt.

Mon 13 Apr, 16:15

The last thing I saw on this was FT 2nd April 2026 – if you can access it. It is the creditors that are attempting to continue funding TW – they provided the company with £3bn in emergency funding last year at 9.75% interest rate which is expected to cost about £800mn in interest total. TW have said they will run out of money again in October this year and the creditors (including US hedge funds Elliott Management & Silver Point) have offered an additional £6.55bn of debt and £3.35bn of equity in October. The debt will be offered at about 6%. TW’s debt pile is given at £20bn.

The offer made by the creditors is to take a 30% write-down on their debt, and for a second tranche of more junior creditors to lose all their cash. This will have to be tested in the High Court. They want to commit to fixing issues that cause breaches rather than paying a fine. Pollution, leakage and other performance targets imposed a year ago will be individually renegotiated – either suspended or “significantly modified”.

Critics are pointing to the removal of accountability and giving the company a regulatory holiday that will leave some infrastructure projects delayed for years. Customers are facing a 37% increase in bills by 2030, not including inflationary increases and TW will have the right to raise prices further if it can find the supply chain to deliver work. What does this mean? More contracting out?

The link below that Anne posted on Tue 7 Apr “NO to Thames Water” is asking our MP to sign the open letter urging Ofwat and Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds to reject the creditor’s last-ditch deal which will probably bring the company in special measures/administration.  

Mon 13 Apr, 09:51

I would appreciate advice on the one thing we should be asking our MP to do about this potential finance deal - e.g. ask him what he's going to do to ensure pollution isn't worse as a result, but I'd like to be as specific as possible. Any advice from others who are closer to the details? Thanks 

Mon 13 Apr, 00:07 (last edited on Mon 13 Apr, 00:09)

And just to make the point even clearer, here are the results of the E. coli testing that we did with Alice last Friday: on the left is upstream and on the right is downstream, as I hardly need to say! each dot on the grid represents a bacterial colony. the location was a stream just adjacent to Hanborough STW, not in Charlbury.

Sat 11 Apr, 13:00

Thank you Lucy for your clear letter.  I will write to confirm my agreement with the content.

As the Government intends to allow untreated sewage to be discharged into our rivers for the next 4 years with no sanction then maybe we need to take steps to protect ourselves from all open waterways? We are not alone - we need to twin ourselves with the poor Chilean residents whose water supply, rivers, the lot were sold by the dictator of the time Pinochet, close friend of Mrs T and the Chicago Boys.  You must all remember Milton Friedman.  They now find that the government and agribusiness work together at great cost to the local population.  

I took this picture yesterday on a tributary of the Evenlode.  Local businesses are busy promoting Charlbury as a tourist destination.  Are they happy with this, how will it welcome people to the Cotswolds?  Somebody tell them that more of the same will not remedy 30 years of failure and extraction.

Fri 10 Apr, 09:40 (last edited on Sat 11 Apr, 09:53)

Rod, that is a jaw-dropping fact about our being the only country in the world allegedly to have privatised our water supply industry, and I agree with your comparison with Grenfell….both these cases are shocking and shameful reminders of what the government thinks about what the the people of this country deserve.

This is part of the government’s ridiculously feeble statement in response to a campaign seeking to nationalise the water companies:

“……. Some campaigners have called for nationalisation of the water industry or a move to not for profit public ownership. However, the Government does not believe that nationalisation is the answer. The reality is that it would take many years to unpick the current ownership model, would be extremely complex, and would likely result in prolonged legal challenges, with years spent in the courts rather than fixing the problems people rightly care about.

During that period, billions of pounds of vital private investment needed to repair leaking pipes, upgrade infrastructure, and improve environmental performance would be put at risk or delayed. Nationalisation would also create a significant hole in the public finances, diverting funding away from key public priorities such as hospitals and schools, without delivering faster or better outcomes for customers or the environment…..”

Thu 9 Apr, 22:58

Thanks Anne. It's brilliant to hear there's so much going on already.

Clearly, the more of us who raise this with Sean Woodcock, the better. I've drafted a letter that I'll be sending to him below. This addresses the urgent issue of the current deal that's being brokered and asks…

Long post - click to read full text

Thu 9 Apr, 21:36

Lucy, I totally endorse what Rod says about supporting WASP: they do a fantastic job so join us at New Beaconsfield Hall on Thursday 23rd April to explore how we can best help, and also to learn more about how the ECP are working to improve the situation locally. 

In a nutshell as part of our 'on the ground' actions we are working with local landowners to design and install measures to 'slow the flow' and reduce pollution from farming sources from adding to the problems. At the same time, we are deploying our high tech kit to take 15 minute samples up and down stream of Hanborough STW over the next few months, accompanied by a detailed citizen scientist study of the water quality in the stream that takes the outflow form the STW, measuring E. coli and river flies to establish the impacts over time. We see this as providing independent and rigorous data to support the expressions of concern that were highlighted in Dirty Business. We have a number of committed citizen scientist volunteers in the catchment who are undertaking this on a weekly basis: so there really is a lot going on 'behind the scenes' as well as the obvious campaigning and the imperative of continuing to lobby our MP to engage with us on this and support our call for it to be brought into public ownership.  I invited Sean Woodcock to join us on 23rd, but he declined but has offered to come out on another date to see what we are doing, so I shall be holding him to that!

If you want to come along on 23rd April just register (free) on Eventbrite www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dirty-business-qa-with-wasp-tickets-1986007331390?aff=oddtdtcreator

Thu 9 Apr, 20:50 (last edited on Thu 9 Apr, 20:53)

It's not just sewage of course but a cocktail of 'stuff' that goes into the rivers from a number of sources.  But we are apparently the only country in the world to have privatised our water supply industry - and then (like Grenfell) not just to have failed utterly to ensure it's properly regulated but to have allowed it to regulate itself!  Am desperately trying not to be party political here, but given where we have got to, re-nationalisation is probably the only realistic solution – though sorting the problems will take years and a great deal of cash.

If you want a 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone' moment, watch Attenborough's first 'Secret Garden' - about a river in Oxfordshire, no less. And weep! Not sure where the site is exactly – I suspect on the Cherwell - but I'll bet there's no sewage works upstream from it.  I’ve lived next to the Evenlode for (unbelievably) the last 12 years and have watched its gradual decline – but all is far from lost.  Last year for instance, we had a gathering of male chub here shortly before the breeding season (along with a large carp) – never knew they did that!  They were well fed for the task ahead…

Some readers might recall my slogan of CUTE! for Clean Up The Evenlode!  Never really got beyond that but Lucy,  Flora has got in ahead of me re WASP - see https://www.windrushwasp.org - if you want a local, more obviously campaigning group - the people behind and portrayed in the C4 prog 'Dirty Business'.  I remain in awe at their expertise and even more, at their tenacity.  Though don't underestimate the worth of the ECP and many others doing serious practical work as well.  Both are needed.

Please sign this petition – and encourage others to do so.  It may be currently overshadowed by madness elsewhere but it’s just so, so wrong…..

Thu 9 Apr, 18:29

Thanks Flora - that's great. Can we just turn up or do we need to book? Is ther a webpage or similar you could share?

Thu 9 Apr, 11:13

Following the showing of the series Dirty Business  on C4, at 7.30-9.00 pm Thursday 23 April at New Beaconsfield Hall in Shipton-u-W the Evenlode Catchment Partnership is hosting a Q&A session with members of WASP (Windrush Against Sewage Pollution)

Everyone is welcome to attend and ask questions about how we can protect our rivers.

Thu 9 Apr, 09:49

Training for new volunteers on river water testing is arranged for tomorrow afternoon - Friday 10th April 13:30-16:30.  I will be going to get my training and I'm happy to take up to 3 other new volunteers in the car to the test site.  Message me directly if you want to join us.

The meet-up location for this Friday's training has had to be changed.  There has been a significant discharge of untreated waste from Hanborough Sewage Treatment Works so we are having to go upstream for safety reasons.  

I'm sure we all agree that this is disgusting and Anne invites us to express our horror by sending a standard letter to our MP asking him not to allow the creditors of Thames Water to discharge untreated sewage into rivers & sea without any sanction for 4 years.  The company is worth nothing today as Feargal Sharkey keeps telling us on our TV's.  It is a mountain of debt and a crumbling, inadequate infrastructure.   In case you missed the link it is here again.  

https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/the-thames-water-creditors-are-closing-in-on-a-deal-urge-your-mp-to-stop-them. ;

Thu 9 Apr, 03:57

Thank you Anne.

To me, selling off our public utilities was akin to someone knocking on your door and offering to sell you your car that stood on your driveway: Thatcher basically sold off something that we as a nation already owned! It therefore follows that renationalisation will cost us nothing, as we will simply be taking back control of what is rightfully ours.

How to reclaim those billions that were given away to the shareholders, though? That is not so easy. 

Signed and shared. 

Wed 8 Apr, 21:23 (last edited on Wed 8 Apr, 21:38)

Thanks so much for sharing Anne!

 We should all be incredibly angry about this. If you're not, watch 'Dirty Business' on Chanel 4. Our rivers are filthy already and the fact our Government is even contemplating allowing it to get worse rather than immediately taking action to improve it is ludicrous.

Do you know of any coordinated local campaign on water quality? I'm aware of the Evenlode Catchment Partnership but I'm thinking more about co-ordinated mass letter writing to our MP etc? 

Wed 8 Apr, 16:21

I have signed the petition and e-mailed our MP, the least I can do to try and change the Evenlode from an open sewer back to a beautiful river. Thank you for your guidance about simple actions we can take.

Tue 7 Apr, 21:06

Happy to support these calls: I never understood how it was possible to make a profit from utilities like water, energy and so on and the water scandal shows that it isn't, unless you strip assents and burden organisations with debt.

We [should] own it!

Tue 7 Apr, 19:13

This morning, the Financial Times reported that Thames Water is about to agree a deal with OFWAT (the water regulator).

If this deal goes ahead, Thames Water will be able to dump sewage freely until 2030.

We've drafted an open letter to Ofwat and the Environment Secretary, urging them to reject the deal.

Can you take 2 mins to email our MP asking him to sign this open letter?

NO to Thames Water - email your MP

Tue 7 Apr, 19:09

Referendum for water! Please sign.

The government has said we can't take our water industry out of the hands of the private owners who have made such a mess of it. Owners who have extracted over £85 billion from our bills in exchange for putting in nothing, while loading companies with debt they did not need.

According to our government, we have to keep playing their game and paying for it and bail the companies out when they fail.

The government has told NGOs they can't even talk about it because it is not on the table, for reasons that have been shown to be untrue.

That cannot be right, so it is time to shine a bright light on the water scandal.

Hold a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640

Either before or after reading the rest, please sign, share, and ask your friends to share, and ask their friends to share, and so on.