We’ve made fantastic progress in our campaign so far.
Fifteen organisations have already signed our pledge to support public ownership of water. These range from grassroots groups leading the fight against sewage pollution to trade unions and larger advocacy organisations focused on democracy and public ownership:
- Ilkley Clean River
- Windrush Against Sewage Pollution
- Henley Mermaids
- Boycott Water Bills
- Boycott Thames Water
- 38 Degrees
- UNISON
- Equity
- We Own It
- Green New Deal Rising
- Momentum
- Zero Hour
- Autonomy
- Common Wealth
- Citizen Network
In addition, we have successfully passed motions calling for public ownership of water in Waverley Borough Council and CLPs around the country.
Last month, we launched a letter-writing campaign urging MPs to attend Clive Lewis’ Water Bill debate on 28th March. Thanks to our dedicated members and supporters, we have already sent over 7,500 letters—a huge achievement!
Our momentum is building, and together, we are making the case for a fairer, publicly owned water system.
Received the following reply from Matt Rodda (Labour, Reading Central)
Thank you for your email.
I appreciate the issues you raise. I share customers’ anger at the scale of water bill rises to fix a lack of investment in water infrastructure. Water companies are failing to deliver for their customers and the environment, and the public has rightly had enough.
I believe the problems we are facing with water companies and the bitter pill of higher water bills have arisen because the last Government weakened regulation, failed to invest in infrastructure and allowed water bosses to take millions of pounds in bonuses while pumping record levels of sewage into our waters.
I am proud to have supported the Water (Special Measures) Act which became law in February 2025.
This legislation will strengthen the powers of the regulator, Ofwat, so it can better hold water companies to account for poor performance. It will give Ofwat new powers to ban undeserved bonuses when water company executives fail to meet high standards. It will introduce stricter penalties, including where senior executives obstruct investigations by environmental regulators, and includes provisions for automatic and severe fines for wrongdoing. It also introduces mandatory monitoring of emergency overflows and pollution incidents.
I also welcome the actions the Government took immediately on coming into office. This included measures to ensure funding for vital infrastructure investment is ringfenced and to put customers and the environment at the heart of water companies’ objectives.
Compensation for households and businesses when basic water services are affected will be doubled and powerful new customer panels will be able to hold water company bosses to account.
I believe the measures the Government is taking will strengthen the enforcement regime and make clear that it will not tolerate poor performance across the water sector. Change will take time, but I strongly support action to fundamentally transform how our water industry is run and restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
Thank you once again for contacting me about this important issue.