Our highlights of 2016... So far!

With political turmoil becoming the new normal, it’s easy to forget to stop and reflect. But despite the chaos, we need to remember that support for public ownership is huge. And when we look back on the last six months, there are glimmers of hope that decision makers are beginning to listen.
 

At the start of the year when we asked you what you thought we should be doing, 37% of you wanted us to oppose Osborne’s asset sell-offs (like the Land Registry)– and almost the same amount wanted us to do everything: oppose outsourcing and sell offs, at the same time as providing evidence that you can use to understand what’s going on.

Well, we’ve definitely tried to do it all! And considering we are just 2 people and a bunch of volunteers in a three-year old organisation - up against 30 years of myths like 'the private sector knows best' - we think we’ve done alright.
 

So here’s our highlights from 2016 so far.

• (Nearly) stopping the Land Registry privatisation: Ok, so it’s not finalised, but the weight of opinion seems to be that the Land Registry privatisation makes no sense whatsoever. We definitely didn’t do this alone of course - we’ve been working with other groups and all sorts of MPs to stop this - but the report funded by We Own It supporters was used SIX times in the debate in the House of Commons, making it clear that MPs agree that this sell-off would be a short term economic disaster - foregoing future profits for a quick cash injection now. 

• Forcing a rethink on Network Rail privatisation: Actions and lobbying by thousands of you forced the Shaw Report to bin the idea of full privatisation of Network Rail. This is a huge success! But, unfortunately, it’s not the end of the story. They still want to explore selling bits of track or our beloved (and profitable) train stations, so we’re campaigning to stop this too, because once it’s broken up, we won’t be able to put the railways back together again and provide the joined-up, publicly owned rail system we need. What's more, our research shows that selling off bits of Network Rail (like the stations) will cost us £10bn in the long term. If you haven’t already, then sign the petition to say 'No Fragmentation'.

• Addressing some big questions with some snappy videos! We don’t have loads of resources, but we like trying out new things to see if they work and help us help you get the message out about public ownership. If you haven’t seen the videos, then you can watch them onYouTube or facebook – tell us what you think and what you’d like to see more of, and we’ll do our best!

• Calling out GWR for faking public ownership: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint that they were misleading customers by trying to appear as if they were publicly owned! A minor victory, but a victory nonetheless.

• Putting public ownership in the press: Our research, funded by We Own It supporters, has had press coverage in the Mirror, the Independent, the Guardian, the Times and Private Eye!

• Owning the Future: While we campaign to stop sell offs, we also need a long term vision. So we ran our first big conference to make the case that public ownership is the future – not the past. It’s not just about trains (although they need to be publicly owned), it’s about data infrastructure, big data, and the way we use technology to ensure transparency, accountability and participation. 

• Demonstrating how we get to a publicly owned energy system:Working with Professor David Hall we demonstrated how to get to a publicly owned energy system - and how much it will cost.

• Campaigning for buses that work for all of us: When we realised that local authorities were effectively being banned from setting up bus companies to run buses, we jumped into action. This ban doesn’t make sense because publicly owned buses generally provide really good services (it’s just like East Coast really). So we’ve been lobbying behind the scenes and over 11,000 of you have already signed the petition to stop this draconian move.

We’ll be working over the summer, campaigning to stop the ban on local authorities setting up bus companies and the sell-off of Network Rail’s prime assets (including stations!), and we'll continue plugging away at shifting the debate so that public ownership is seen as the sensible, effective way to manage vital public services that it is.

 
We’re also revamping all of our evidence pages so you can get the information you need on all the different services, in an easy to understand way. Let us know if you think we could do this better!
 

Perhaps surprisingly, we're the only group dedicated to campaigning for public ownership. But then, that might be why over 13,000 people have joined us since January. Hopefully this means we are doing something right!

If you wanted to help us grow a bit more, it would be great if you would consider asking a friend to sign up to our newsletter, as we really rely on word of mouth more than anything else. 

So whether you are new to We Own It, or if you’ve been with us from the start – thanks for everything: we couldn’t do it without you.