Privatisation has damaged England and Wales’ water system, driving up bills and torpedoing investment.

Since 1991 (the year of the big water sell-off), there has been a 44 per cent real increase in water bills in England and Wales, and industry debt has risen from £0 in 1989 to £72 billion in 2023.

Where has all that money gone? There has not been a single new major reservoir built, but shareholders of the water and sewage corporations have been handed £85.2 billion, often from borrowed money.

In England and Wales, almost a third of the average bill now goes to servicing the sector’s enormous debts or paying shareholder dividends. Less money spent on water infrastructure means worse water quality.

The overwhelming majority of countries and 90 per cent of cities own their water systems — England and Wales are outliers. But we don’t need to look overseas to see a successful alternative.

Publicly-owned Scottish Water invests over one third more on a per capita basis than the private English and Welsh companies. Scottish water bills are, in real terms, the same as they were 17 years ago, and only ten per cent of revenue is spent paying debt-related costs.