The Labour MP Apsana Begum has issued a blistering critique of water privatisation, accusing the industry of acting ‘like a criminal racket’. She made these comments at a fringe meeting at this year’s TUC Congress in Brighton.

Begum spoke at a meeting titled ‘For an Irreversible Shift in the Balance of Power and Wealth’ hosted by Arise and the General Federation of Trade Unions.

Speaking about prime minister Andy Burnham’s stated intention to reverse 40 years of neoliberalism, Begum told the meeting: “What is said against neoliberalism will be rendered meaningless, in my opinion, completely meaningless if our government is not willing to end the disastrous experiments with privatisation that have robbed our country and our people of hundreds of billions of pounds.”

Begum then went on to specifically discuss the water sector. She told the meeting: “In water, firms are operating like a criminal racket – discharging thousands of hours of raw sewage into waterways [and] hiking bills every year, with almost £100 billion in dividends since privatisation.”

Later, Begum criticised the Labour government for having not yet ended water privatisation. She told the meeting: “The public are completely incensed about it, I’m sure we can all agree. But I cannot accept the government backing away from even the idea of using special administration measures, even for Thames Water.”

She later added: “I think we should be having a conversation about taking all water firms into public ownership.”

In her concluding remarks, Begum told the meeting: “We have to keep demanding an economy that works in the interests of workers and the wider public. I think public ownership has to be at its heart.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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In his major speech on the climate crisis yesterday (August 6), Green Party leader Zack Polanski made the case for taking water back into public ownership as part of a suite of policies he wants to see implemented to mitigate against the impacts of extreme heat.

He said: “privatised water companies – they’ve failed to build a single new reservoir since 1992, [and] are losing nearly three billion litres of water a day from leaky pipes”, before later adding: “To secure our water supply, prevent drought and protect our food system – we need to bring water back into public hands. Right now, money is flowing out of our hands into the pockets of shareholders – just like water is flowing out of those companies’ leaky pipes in the middle of a drought.”

That call has been welcomed by water campaigners. Anti privatisation group We Own It – who have long campaigned for taking water into public ownership in order to lower bills and invest in infrastructure – said Polanski was “absolutely right” about privatisation threatening water security.

Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It told Left Foot Forward: “Polanski is absolutely right to blame privatised water companies for threatening our water security while the climate collapses. 

“Water companies create profit by siphoning our money – as billpayers – out into the pockets of faraway shareholders and banks. This means that, for decades, our water infrastructure has been starved of the investment it so desperately needs. Leaky pipes and a lack of reservoirs are inevitable outcomes of privatisation. 

“It is appalling that we’ve just had the wettest winter on record, and now more than half of the country is in drought. This is a crisis that could and should have been avoided through public ownership of our water

“As Polanski correctly observes, ⁠⁠only under a publicly owned water system will all of our money as billpayers be directly invested into fixing infrastructure so that the public can be protected as temperatures get hotter.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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