Mermaids call for Thames Water to be brought back into permanent public ownership
Mermaids have joined calls for Thames Water to be taken back into public ownership.
We 5 mermaids have signed up to We Own It’s calls for the beleaguered water company to be renationalised following news this week that shareholders had reneged on a promise to inject £500m of fresh capital by the end of March, blaming Ofwat’s regulatory demands which, they claim, have made the company’s business plan “uninvestible.”
“The 35-year experiment with privatised water has failed,” said Mermaid Jo Robb. “With Thames Water teetering on the brink of collapse and raw sewage pouring into our precious rivers, now is the time to take the company back into permanent public ownership and reverse the calamity of privatisation. Examples from across Europe, including in Paris, show that water and sewerage can be provided more cheaply while putting the health of people and planet first.”
“Thames Water’s shareholders are “playing chicken” with the regulator, refusing to inject much-needed capital and gaslighting the public by blaming Ofwat for holding them to proper regulatory standards. They are not fit to own a regulated entity, much less a water company on which our economy and our very lives depend.”
“The raft of regulatory tightening proposed by government is mere tinkering at the edges and fails to recognise that privatised water is a scam. Privatisation is fundamentally incompatible with delivering water and sewerage services for the people who rely on them and for our natural environment. Shareholder profit has no place in essential services like water.”
“Thames Water should be brought back into public ownership and managed as a municipalised publicly owned entity, like Eau de Paris, with all profits reinvested into improving infrastructure and service.”
Laura Reineke said “It is vital that the regulators are given their teeth back, and are free to prosecute, with robust regulation and cheaper loans for a publicly owned company we can get back to healthy, happy waterways for wildlife, fish and humans to enjoy & call home.”
