The Fire Brigades Union has joined calls for the government to bring water into public ownership, to ensure the clean and adequate water supply firefighters need to safely tackle fires.
Water companies are currently releasing record amounts of sewage into UK rivers and seas. This year, sewage was released into waterways for a record 3.61 million hours in total. There were 994,499 sewage discharges estimated across the UK in 2024. The Rivers Trust has found that no single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland is in good health.
This is a result of a lack of investment in infrastructure, meaning that water and sewage systems are easily overwhelmed by rainfall.
Since water was privatised by Margaret Thatcher in 1989, £85 billion has been siphoned out of the system to shareholders. The average pay for a water company CEO is £1.7 million a year.
The government launched an “Independent Water Commission”, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe (known as the Cunliffe Commission). The final report was published in July, recommending that the water regulator, Ofwat, is scrapped, and warning that the public are likely to foot the bill for private companies failing to invest in infrastructure.
However, the Cunliffe Commission was prevented from considering public ownership by the remit imposed by ministers. This decision has been heavily criticised by campaigners against sewage pollution.
A recent review by academics – the People’s Commission on Water – recommended public ownership as the best way to push down costs, limit pollution and drive investment.
In its recent report on the water sector, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee concluded that “the current models of ownership in the water industry may not be bringing about the culture the sector needs”.
In Scotland, where water is provided by Scottish Water, owned by the Scottish government, £800 million a year is reinvested into water infrastructure.
Steve Wright, Fire Brigades Union general secretary said: “The ongoing scandal of companies releasing sewage into rivers continues to put the public at risk. Firefighters, on the frontline of floods and countryside fires, should not have to face the additional health risks of polluted water.
“Our expensive, leaky and sewage ridden system is the direct result of a failed privatisation experiment. It’s time for the government to take water back into public hands. The water companies should have no entitlement to compensation.”
