Questions about public ownership
Why does ownership matter?
Owning assets is the same as owning wealth. If the public sector owns assets this makes our country richer.
Public ownership means profits can be reinvested and services can be accountable to us, the public who use and pay for them through our bills and taxes.
Public ownership is normal in many other countries, for example the US has 87% publicly owned water. The 40 year experiment selling off and privatising EVERYTHING was ideologically extreme.
Why does privatisation fail?
Privatisation has failed for 40 years. Handing natural monopolies and essential services to private profit-making companies causes many problems. These include:
- Worse services - private companies extract our money, cut corners and cherry pick services because they are focussed on making a profit
- Creating artificial "markets" where they don't belong has unintended consequences - public purpose is replaced with unhelpful incentives, integration is replaced with fragmentation, regulation ends up with corruption
- Damage and burden - relying on the private sector reduces public sector capacity and flexibility, but when things go wrong government has to pick up the pieces anyway
Read 10 reasons why privatisation fails.
How can we afford public ownership?
We can't afford privatisation because it's a rip off. Right now every household is propping up privatisation with our high bills. For example, in the water sector in England a third of every bill is spent on the expensive debt and dividends of the private companies. To end this rip off, the government has a number of options:
- Force companies to deliver what they promised. This will make them less profitable and when they go bust we don't have to compensate the shareholders
- Insource contracts wherever possible when they come to an end
- Create new publicly owned organisations so that there are no shareholders to compensate
- Recognise in government accounting that many public services are assets with a revenue stream, so taking or buying them back makes sense
Read more about why public ownership is affordable.
How much would you compensate shareholders?
If private companies providing public services are failing, their shareholders should not be rewarded. There is a "Special Administration Regime" which exists to protect public services if companies providing essential services go bust. This covers water, energy monopolies and the Royal Mail. If they go bust, their shareholders do not need compensation.
Shareholders take a risk and the value of their shares can go down as well as up. They should be factoring in the risk of their company failing and government taking it back.
The government can and should hold privatised companies to their commitments, force them to invest their own money, regulate them properly. The companies will then become less profitable. If and when they go bust, the government can take them back.
Isn’t the private sector more efficient?
No. A major review of hundreds of academic studies looking at this question found there is no inherent difference in efficiency between private and public sector organisations. However with privatisation, we have to pay out dividends to shareholders and the cost of borrowing to invest is higher.
Putting ministers in charge of public services is a bad idea, isn’t it?
Public ownership means public services are ultimately accountable to the people who use them. However they are run by professionals. Public ownership is already happening around the world and here in the UK - organisations like the Met Office, the Land Registry, the Royal Mint are run by professionals not ministers. They are successful and return a profit to the public purse.
Doesn’t public ownership mean going back to the 1970s?
No. Society, technology, business, and environmental concerns have changed out of all recognition in the last 50 years. Our report ‘When We Own It: A model for public ownership in the 21st century’ explains how we can make public ownership more successful than ever before.
To summarise: public ownership – local, regional and national – can help us tackle challenges like climate breakdown and huge inequality. Publicly owned organisations will have new duties, for example: to decarbonise; to ensure access for all to crucial services; to work with communities; to steward public assets and land.
We’ll replace inefficient regulators, using their budgets to create an independent, democratic organisation to represent the people who use public services. It will hold publicly owned companies to account, fight any threat of re-privatisation, and maximise participation.
Publicly owned companies could be managed by professionals day-to-day, and held accountable by a supervisory board representing the broad, long term public interest. This would include the people who use public services (through representatives), workers and civil society (social, environmental and community groups), as well as experts and elected politicians.
Questions about We Own It
Are you linked to any political organisation?
We Own It is an independent organisation, not connected with any political party. We advocate for public ownership regardless of whichever party is in power.
How are you funded?
We are funded almost entirely by donations from extraordinary people - by which we mean members of the public, who last year provided 93% of our income!
We are happy for donors to fund specific pieces of work which are in accordance with our mission and our values. However, we don't take money with strings attached and donors don't have a role in our governance structure. We don’t sell advertising space or promote affiliate links on this site or any of our social channels.
Are you a charity - if not, why not?
We Own It is a not-for-profit, our legal form is private company limited by guarantee. Our status gives us more freedom to campaign for political change, than if we were a registered charity.
Does writing to my MP actually achieve anything?
Yes! We think collective action makes a difference and our fantastic supporters have demonstrated this many times. For example,
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In 2024 we have seen a favourable outcome in the consultation on railway ticket office closures, and victories for bus campaigners in many local authorities.
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In 2026 Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, wrote to us that “ a number of constituents have asked me to sign the Open Letter to the Interim CEO of Ofwat – Chris Walters – and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Emma Reynolds – regarding negotiations between Thames Water and Ofwat.” Ed Davey signed the letter, which led to a dozen other Lib Dems also signing - his action precipitating a domino effect.
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The letters you write have influenced MPs to attend our sessions in Parliament on rail and the NHS.
We always encourage people to use their voice and contact their MP - after all, your MP works for you. We know that MPs react in a variety of ways. The most popular tactic is a template response. Some MPs just use an auto-reply; some do not reply at all. But MP constituency offices are logging your letters. The more they get, the harder it is for them to ignore you!
The responses you get from your MP help us - and you! - to understand the party line on the issues we campaign on, and in turn how we can most effectively help our supporters who may wish to reply.
How do you decide which campaigns to run?
As a small organisation, 93% funded by individual donations, we have to be very careful about how we allocate our resources. We campaign on the issues our supporters tell us they care most about, where they can exert the biggest influence, and where together we stand the greatest chance of changing things. By maintaining our focus we can be useful to our supporters, be influential in the media, and speak truth to power.
Why are you still on X / Twitter?
Although we have a steadily growing following on Bluesky and Mastodon, we have taken the decision to remain on X for the time being for the following reasons:
- We consistently post everywhere so that people can choose where they want to read our posts.
- We want to reach as many people as possible, whatever their views, wherever they are.
- Our aim is to win concrete victories for public ownership, not to campaign against social media platform owners. Campaigners dilute their power and influence by trying to campaign about everything.
- Many influential people, and many of our supporters have accounts on X but not elsewhere. If we deactivate our account we can’t enlist their support to amplify our message.
- X was created to be a Town Square for all. We believe in its power, alongside other social platforms, as a place where communal information and action can thrive on the internet. Ideally, an online space where the public can engage in issues that matter to the public should be in public ownership.
Why should I sign your petitions, when there are others available?
There are a lot of petitions out there. We support and share those which accord with our work. There are petitions and actions that do not acknowledge the hurdles that have to be cleared before the desired result is achieved.
We take a practical approach to our petitions, and have a clear idea of the outcome you may achieve with each. That outcome is usually just one step of many, in the journey towards the change you want to see.
We base the theme and the timing on how supporters like you can exert the biggest influence, and where you stand the greatest chance of changing things.
How can I get more involved?
The first step is to sign up for our weekly webinars, which take place every Thursday lunchtime. If you’re on Facebook you can request to join our private group, We Own It Campaigners and Supporters.
Due to our size we don't work with volunteers on an ongoing, long-term basis; however, we always need extra hands when we stage a demonstration or publicity event.
I want to add Gift Aid to my donation. How can I do this?
Since We Own It is a company limited by guarantee, not a charity, we aren't eligible for Gift Aid. Please do donate anyway!