… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: nationalise

  • Green Party reaction to water review

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    Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
    Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

    Responding to the Jon Cunliffe review into the water sector in England and Wales which calls for Ofwat to be replaced by a single regulatory body, co-leader of the Green Party, Adrian Ramsay MP, said:

    “Expecting a different form of regulation to fix the water industry is, frankly, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Not only that but the majority of the public are going to be expected to pay more in bills, as we watch the industry continue to sink under the failed model of privatisation.

    “The government deliberately left out the option of public ownership from the review, but that’s the only real way to get the water industry to clean up its act, end millions being siphoned off for huge CEO salaries and shareholder dividends and instead see this money invested into ending sewage dumping and fixing leaks.”

  • Pollution figures ‘the latest indicator of a water sector in total chaos’

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pollution-figures-latest-indicator-water-sector-total-chaos

     A tanker pumps out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire

    CALLS to nationalise the water sector intensified yesterday after it emerged that serious pollution incidents in England jumped by 60 per cent last year.

    The Environment Agency reported 75 major incidents that fell under categories one and two, which can severely harm the environment and human health.

    Serious incidents doubled from 14 to 33 at crisis-hit Thames Water, the watchdog found.

    Southern Water was responsible for 15 of the incidents and Yorkshire Water for 13.

    Pollution incidents across all categories had increased by 29 per cent, with 2,801 recorded last year. 

    Thames Water recorded the most incidents again at 523, followed by Anglian Water (482) and United Utilities (376).

    The rise was attributed to underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance and reduced resilience due to the impacts of climate change. 

    We Own It founder Cat Hobbs said the figures “are the latest indicator of a water sector in total chaos.

    “The roots of this chaos extend all the way back to when Thatcher privatised water in the 1980s — effectively flogging the family silver for a quick buck.

    “Since then, private shareholders have stuffed their pockets with gold, amassing £80 billion in payouts. 

    “They’ve killed our rivers and let the infrastructure crumble, while bill-payers pick up the tab.

    “Recent research shows that the cost of public ownership could be close to zero. This solution could also save the public £3-5bn a year, making publicly owned water a source of income for the Treasury.”

    Article continues

  • Dear Keir Starmer: End The Profit-Driven Sewage Scandal

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    Republished from https://www.sas.org.uk/updates/dear-keir-starmer. Please let me know if you don’t want me republishing it.

    An open letter to the Government, signed by a coalition of environmental and civil society groups

    Dear Keir Starmer, Prime Minister and Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs,

    We demand an urgent end to the sewage scandal through systemic transformation of the water industry – public and environmental good must be put before private profit.

    A year ago, you began your premiership with a clear commitment to deliver on your election mandate to end the sewage pollution crisis and clean up our waters. On Monday, the Independent Water Commission is set to publish its final recommendations but it will fall fatally short if it fails to confront the root cause of the crisis: a system built towards serving private profit cannot deliver an end to sewage pollution.

    Your election mandate has given you a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our broken water system. But this will take more than incremental change—it demands a decisive break from the failed model that has deluged our coastlines, rivers and lakes with sewage.

    The need for a full system overhaul is painfully clear. Since privatisation in 1990, water companies have paid shareholders over £74 billion in dividends—while burdening the system with £69 billion in debt. Despite repeated promises to invest, shareholders have actually withdrawn more than they have put in, meanwhile essential infrastructure has been left to crumble. In 2024 alone, untreated sewage was dumped 565,383 times across England and Wales. It’s a 35-year tale of broken pipes, broken promises and a fundamentally broken system.

    The consequences of inaction are shocking. Coastal economies and communities are being hammered. Rivers declared ecologically dead. Pollution poisoning our wildlife. Thousands of people are falling ill after swimming in raw sewage. Yet water bills will keep rising – to service debt, to fund dividends – and so it is the public who will continue to pay the price.

    Enough is enough. You must act now. Rebuild a system that people can be proud of, not angry about. A system that serves the public and protects nature – not private profit. Anything less would be a betrayal of the promise you made to the electorate.

    Yours,

    Surfers Against Sewage
    River Action
    Greenpeace UK
    WWF UK
    GMB Union
    Compass
    Zero Hour
    Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland 
    GMB Union
    Public and Commercial Services Union
    Green New Deal Rising
    Wildlife and Countryside Link
    Triodos Bank
    Surfing England
    The Wave Project
    38 Degrees
    Faith For The Climate
    People & Planet
    Medact
    Health for XR 
    Dirty Water Campaign
    Blue Marine Foundation 
    Women’s Environmental Network
    Angling Trust
    End Sewage Convoys and Pollution Exmouth (ESCAPE) 
    SOS Whitstable
    Campaign for National Parks
    Centre for Alternative Technology
    Finisterre
    Carve Magazine
    SurfGirl Magazine 
    Planet Patrol
    Rewilding Britain
    Christian Surfers
    Good Law Project
    The Wildlife Trusts 
    Clean Water Sport Alliance Wales
    Clean Water Sport Alliance 
    The Rivers Trust 
    Right To Roam
    Students Organising for Sustainability UK

  • Troubled Thames Water reveals ballooning debts and losses for the past year

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/troubled-thames-water-reveals-ballooning-debts-and-losses-past-year

     A tanker pumps out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire, January 10, 2024

    THAMES WATER’s debts have ballooned to £16.8 billion and it made a loss of £1.65bn in the year to March, the company revealed today, sparking fresh calls for renationalisation.

    Appearing before the Commons environment committee, chief executive Chris Weston admitted that the company was “extremely stressed” and would take “at least a decade to turn around.”

    Britain’s largest water supplier also revealed a sharp increase in pollution incidents over the past year.

    Gary Carter, a national officer at water industry union GMB, said: “Thames Water is drowning under a mountain of debt.

    “Hiking customer bills has led to a rise in operating profit, money that should go on investment but is being swallowed up by monstrous loans needed to keep the company afloat.

    “While Thames lurches from crisis to crisis, the solution is clear: it must be taken back into public ownership, with workers’ terms, conditions and pensions protected.”

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/troubled-thames-water-reveals-ballooning-debts-and-losses-past-year

  • Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

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    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/

    If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again.

    The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund.

    Through a chain of seven cutout companies, which I will take you through, the direct ownership is with Airtanker Ltd, which gives its address as RAF Brize Norton. It owns, maintains and operates the RAF’s Voyager refuelling aircraft, which have been providing mid-air refuelling to the Israeli Defence Forces as well as carrying, in their cargo role, munitions to the IDF.

    …

    Airtanker Ltd screenshot
    Airtanker Ltd screenshot

    Airtanker Ltd states that five of the Voyager aircraft while available to the RAF: “can also be made available to other parties. This can include providing military capability to other nations…”.

    Whether the aircraft have been operated by the RAF on behalf of the Israelis, or whether they have been “provided to” the IDF direct, is an interesting question. Is this designed to build in plausible deniability for the UK government?

    Eight of the Voyager Aircraft though fully painted in RAF livery, actually are the property of Airtanker Ltd.

    …

    The RAF’s Voyager aircraft are effectively being provided under the Private Finance Initiative. Exactly how much money the hedge fund managers and this string of companies are taking out of the defence budget is hard to know.

    One particularly surprising fact is that it is plain that the private companies are also providing the RAF ground crew. Who employs the flight crews is not entirely clear.

    That such an obviously rotten and corrupt arrangement exists in the RAF I had no idea. Some British military personnel are in fact contracted mercenaries. It gives new context to the active RAF involvement in the Genocide in Gaza.

    Palestine Action’s excellent act of resistance in vandalising this Hedge Fund Air Force has brought all of this to our attention. Which is yet a further reason to be grateful to Palestine Action.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/