Our guiding principle in choosing campaigns is whether they help make a Good Society possible; one where equality, sustainability and democracy are not mere aspirations, but a living reality.
As an organisation, we explore the ideas gap between what our country needs and the existing offer of formal politics.
We strive to close the gap in our campaigns, identifying the catalyst issues that could become the building blocks of a New Settlement.
That starts with the basics, and it doesn’t get much more basic than our need for water.
We all know our water system was broken when it was privatised. Passing an essential of life that is a natural monopoly into private and profit maximising hands was always going to lead to disaster. Yet there is a solution that unites our desire for an economy that works for everyone, handing genuine power back to communities through democratic reforms, and the need for real sustainability – public ownership.
Read our publication Our Water Our Water: a democratic case of public ownership of water.
This is our water, our bills, and our environment, the sewage we have to deal with, but we have no say. The latest astronomical bill hikes of 53% over 5 years shunt water companies’ financial recklessness and debts onto the shoulders of bill-payers because we have no say and no way of holding them to account.
It’s not enough to change the regulator or introduce guardrails. These companies have monopolies – and have rinsed the public for profit for over 30 years. Enough is enough.
That’s why we’re campaigning for public ownership of water.
As is the Compass way, this is about pulling progressives together to push for structural change. So we’ve brought these organisations in a coalition behind public ownership of water:
- 38 Degrees – watch the story of our 100,000-strong petition with 38 degrees to challenge the government shutting the door to common sense – public ownership.
- Abundance
- The Autonomy Institute
- Beneath British Waters
- Best for Britain
- Boycott Thames Water
- Boycott Water Bills
- Clean River Kent Campaign
- Citizen Network
- Common Wealth
- Compass
- Equality Trust
- Equity
- Friends of the Thames
- Global Justice Now
- GMB Union – watch Cliff Roney’s speech to the GMB conference on our Instagram.
- Green New Deal Rising – see more about our joint action on their PAY UP campaign to picket a hedge fund making money off the crisis at Thames Water
- Henley Mermaids
- High Pay Centre
- Ilkley Clean River
- Momentum
- Save Our Swale
- UNISON
- We Own It – read about our Thames Water Emergency Board with We Own It, and see the photos here.
- Welsh Rivers Union
- Windrush Against Sewage Pollution
- Zero Hour – read their blog on our campaign here
Here is what we are doing to build a movement bringing together grassroots campaigners, civil society organisations and parliamentarians fighting for public water:
- Clive Lewis MP’s Water Bill: a Democratic Blueprint
- Thames Water Emergency Board: Democracy in Action
- The People’s Plan for Water:
CLIVE LEWIS’ WATER BILL: A DEMOCRATIC BLUEPRINT
On 28 March 2025, with the leadership of Clive Lewis MP and alongside allies in our growing coalition, we took a bold step in Parliament and helped introduce a Private Members Bill to bring real democratic control to our water system.
The Bill proposed that we:
- Set new targets and objectives relating to water, including in relation to the ownership of water companies and to climate mitigation and adaptation;
- Place requirements on the Secretary of State to publish and implement a national strategy for achieving those targets and objectives;
- Establish a Commission on Water to advise the Secretary of State on that strategy;
- Launch a Citizens’ Assembly on water ownership – ensuring people, not just politicians or profiteers, shape the future of this essential service.
The bill lays the foundations for a truly public debate – inside Parliament and across the country – on who owns our water, how it’s managed, and what kind of future we want for it.
Clive Lewis’s speech during the debate captured that spirit. Watch it here.
The debate on the 28th March was a powerful moment to shift the conversation in Parliament about our water, but we are far from done. We want to use this bill as a proposition – to continue this national and democratic conversation about water, and how this integral part of our commons is managed in the 21st century, with all the democratic, climate and ecological challenges that lie ahead.
Thank you to the tens of thousands of campaigners who emailed their MPs asking them to attend the debate, and to the 50 campaigners who came to support Clive at the debate on the day. It was one of the busiest public galleries in a while!
THAMES WATER EMERGENCY BOARD: DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Thames Water is everything that’s gone wrong with privatised utilities. For decades, shareholders extracted profits while the infrastructure crumbled. But instead of bringing it back into public hands and away from private equity vultures, the Government is keeping the status quo.
Special administration. No scrutiny around governance. Just more of the same: Thames Water billpayers have received the highest bill hike in the history of 5 year price reviews, while the company received a £3bn bailout loan.
That’s why in March 2025, alongside We Own It, we convened the first-ever Thames Water Emergency Board of water users – a democratic gathering of billpayers, union reps, anti-sewage campaigners, experts and elected representatives – right outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
With this project, we are modelling the group of households, workers, local government reps, environmental groups, and experts who should be included in decisions about the future of Thames Water and other water companies.
By our second meeting in May, we’d grown.
We launched an open letter to the Mayor of London, calling on him to oppose the planned sale to vulture fund KKR. The letter was supported by almost 6,000 people.
Under public pressure, KKR backed off.
But the fight is far from over.
Now we want to ensure Thames Water gets placed into Special Administration and brought into permanent public ownership.
We know Thames Water is just the beginning. More companies are on the brink. But if we win here, we show that a real alternative is not only possible – it’s necessary.
Stay tuned: the next meeting of the Thames Water Emergency Board is coming soon.
THE PEOPLE’S PLAN FOR WATER
EXPOSING SHAM DEMOCRACY: THE CUNLIFFE REVIEW
Thanks to consistent pressure from the public, campaigners, and local communities across the country, last year the Labour government rightly committed to the most significant review of the water sector since privatisation, the Independent Water Commission, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe.
But rather than confront the reality that the privatised water industry is failing, the review declared it would not even investigate the possibility of public ownership.
So ahead of their report, we partnered with Clive Lewis MP and 38 Degrees to push public ownership back onto the agenda. That petition gathered over 110,000 signatures, showing just how much support there is for this solution in the country.
Despite this, the result of the Commission was a technocratic rebranding of a failed system. It offered only regulatory tweaks, upholding the same system that got us into this mess in the first place.
As the report dropped, we gather major trade unions (GMB, Unite, Fire Brigade Union), national anti-sewage organisations (River Action, Surfers Against Sewage, Zero Hour) as well as regional and grassroots campaigners (Sewage Campaign Group, Save Windermere, Welsh Rivers Union) to collectively and clearly say: we have no confidence in the Cunliffe Review.
We will not accept the technocratic solution offered by the Cuncliffe Review. Instead, we’re backing a bold alternative: The People’s Commission on the Water Sector.
Run by four leading academics, this independent group gathered ideas and evidence from across the country – from sector experts to everyday water users – to build a plan for a fair, effective, and climate-ready water system.
Their conclusion was clear: Public ownership is cheaper. Cleaner. Fairer.
And now, we’re turning their findings into action.
THE PEOPLE’S PLAN FOR WATER: POWERING THE ALTERNATIVE
It’s time for solutions that match the scale of the crisis we’re in.
We were proud to support the People’s Commission on the Water Sector as they launched their report in parliament in early July 2025, alongside Clive Lewis MP and several members of Compass’ Our Water, Our Way coalition.
Run by four leading academics, this independent group ran their own Review into the sector alongside the Cunliffe Review – except they didn’t block looking at public ownership. They gathered ideas and evidence from across the country – from sector experts to everyday water users, but crucially, they did not speak to water companies and their lobbyists. They started from scratch build a plan for a fair, effective, and climate-ready water system.
Their conclusion was clear: Public ownership is cheaper. Cleaner. Fairer.
Now, we’re powering up the People’s Plan for Water – grounded in the findings of the People’s Commission.
Alongside Clive Lewis MP, Green New Deal Rising, Momentum, Autonomy and Extinction Rebellion’s Dirty Water Campaign, we’re demanding:
- A planned shift to public ownership, using existing powers and new laws.
- Water boards run by those with a stake in clean, affordable water – not just profiteers.
- Polluters paying for the mess they’ve made.
It’s over to us to push this alternative everywhere – to MPs, civil society, and people across the country – and build deafening pressure on the Government to finally look at this solution.
To make that possible, we need your help.
If you stand with us, add your name to the People’s Plan for Water here.
