17 Sep 2026

Dear Angela Eagle, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and regional and local Mayors,

We welcome proposals to give more power over our water system to mayors and local leaders, in the form of regional bodies. Local people have long deserved a role in managing this vital service.

However, the proposed changes will be worse than meaningless unless they are accompanied by a transfer of ownership to these same regional bodies.

Labour MPs have rightly already expressed their opposition [1].

If these changes go ahead without a transfer of ownership into public hands:

  • Members of the public will feel betrayed. Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on a promise to end 40 years of neoliberalism. 82% of the population want to see water in public hands [2]. The recent parliamentary debate about the sector - where many Labour MPs called for public ownership - is testament to the depth and breadth of public feeling [3]. Handing oversight to local leaders while keeping water in private hands will do nothing to address this.

  • Services will not improve. Since 2021, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has worked in official partnership with United Utilities [4]. This year, United Utilities pushed the average water bill up to £660, despite soaring profits of over £630m in 2025. United Utilities was also responsible for nearly 70,000 sewage discharges in 2025 [5]. Increasing local oversight alone will not ease the cost of living, nor protect the local environment.

  • It would reward the private sector for their failure. The private companies who have profited from the destruction of our vital water infrastructure would be able to continue to do so. They would also be emboldened by a veneer of respectability, given to them by their relationship with local leaders.

  • There is a huge political risk for local leaders. As Mark McVitie - former director of the Labour Growth Group - has highlighted, ‘we risk giving local leaders more responsibility for a system they don’t have the power to fundamentally change’ [6]. As long as private companies still own our water sector, local leaders will not be able to direct all of billpayers’ money to where it is needed. Our water infrastructure will suffer as a result.

90% of water in the world is publicly owned [7]. In France, local authorities are able to decide whether or not water is privatised. Many have used this power to run water in public ownership. This includes Paris City Council, which voted to bring water into public hands in 2010, a move which has hugely benefited local people: as Anna Dixon MP recently observed in parliament, ‘water bills in Paris are about a third lower than they are for my constituents under Yorkshire Water’ [8].

Mayors and local leaders deserve real control, in the form of regional public ownership. They do not deserve to be given crumbling, debt-laden companies without the ability to make them work for local people.

By taking the bus companies to court in Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham proved that he is willing to take on private interests in order to benefit the public. We truly hope that this government makes the same decision about our water sector.

Yours sincerely,

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Cat Hobbs - Director, We Own It



[1] ‘Burnham faces revolt over plan to put mayors in charge of water’, The Telegraph - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/16/backlash-andy-burnham-mayors-water-labour-mps-revolt/

[2] Most Britons think water and energy companies should be nationalised’, YouGov - https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54846-most-britons-think-water-and-energy-companies-should-be-nationalised

[3] ‘Water Sector: Public Ownership’, Hansard - https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-09-14/debates/0E4845C2-E1B3-4BBB-8A08-6C7E05BD78DD/WaterSectorPublicOwnership

[4] ‘Transforming how we manage water in Greater Manchester’, GMCA - https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/transforming-how-we-manage-water-in-greater-manchester/

[5]

[6] ‘Don’t back down on pledge to put water firms under public control, Burnham told’, the Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/16/mayors-and-other-local-leaders-could-be-given-powers-to-oversee-water-firms?utm_term=6aab80b845f650d43f31754f91cd717a&utm_campaign=FirstEdition&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=firstedition_email

[7] ‘Water Privatisation’, University of Greenwich - https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/1704/1/PSIRU_Report_%289820%29_-_2008-04-W-over.pdf

[8] ‘Water Sector: Public Ownership’, Hansard - https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-09-14/debates/0E4845C2-E1B3-4BBB-8A08-6C7E05BD78DD/WaterSectorPublicOwnership

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