If Labour won’t nationalise water, their “big overhaul” is a con.

Sewage in our rivers. Bills going up. Profits protected.

Public services should be in public hands.

January 20, 2026 - 09:09 UTC

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Add to that crumbling infrastructure, water shortages (in a country with one of the highest rainfall), absence of planning for the future... We're slowly heading towards a disaster, and all Labour seem to want to do is rearrange the deck chairs.
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They are in Scotland

You are talking about England and Wales so say England and Wales
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Water is already nationalised in Scotland, the Labour Party didn't do and aren't doing shit.
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England and Wales is what the UK Government actually controls, yes. Anyone that isn't a dog-brained fuckhead understands this.
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Works so well. www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/04/sewage-in-scotlands-rivers-and-beaches-far-more-widespread-than-realised
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He's the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, who do you think he's talking about?
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He's the leader of the English and Welsh Greens. I live in Scotland and was able to unpick the confusing mystery of what he was referring to. Don't be dull.
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Me watching you double down
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We jail the execs, bankrupt the companies with fines, then nationalise
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More popularism from Zack the great traitor that preference rid ourselves of our defence and pull out of NATO.
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The government would probably save more money if was nationalised, this is crazy!
And also they can use this as a template as to what happens if any government privatised the NHS..
GREED INEVITABLY DESTROYS US. Essentials should never be privatised, ever!
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Labour's solution as always is to stick a plaster on a festering wound.
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Anything that is a public service or is a de facto monopoly ought to be in public hands. [source: French constitution, Art 9 of the "Préambule de la constitution française de 1946"]
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Which isnt applied directly in French water and wastewater. Around 75% of water and 50% of wastewater services ate provided by for profit businesses.
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#VoteGreen for clean rivers, streams, and an end to the racket of water privatisation.
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Between this and all of the AI Datacentres that we'll see built, we're in for some horrific droughts.
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I literally said the same thing to myself listening to the news this morning. "Does this 'overhaul' involve renationalising? No? In that case it's bunk."
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I think the latest water company con is telling us we are suddenly using more water. I live on my own. My water usage has never changed in 12 years. Now, apparently, it's trebled!!!
They've done the same to my son. Single guy using the same as a family!!
@yorkshirewater.bsky.social
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This Labour government is a pathetic con. Nothing but billionaires - again.
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Yes, their big overhaul is a con.
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Absofriginlutely.. Shitting your pants and changing your shirt. 🤦‍♂️
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Yes, but profits and bonuses.

That's what the companies are really for.
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I'm sure the re-nationalising it would be relatively straightforward but I don't understand where the money would then come from to fix it once in public hands.
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Use profits to fix things rather than pay dividends to shareholders (estimates ranging from £65.9 billion to over £85 billion in dividends, averaging £1.4 billion to over £2 billion annually)
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How about England starts paying for the water they steal from wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
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Presumably, the more the water companies rip us off, the more GDP there is for Starmer to boast about.
If growth is indeed Labour’s Number One priority, then the cost of living and the quality of public services must, inevitably, be less important.
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Indeed: our water companies should not have been recklessly privatised.

But if we renationalise, the huge debts with which the foreign owners have loaded up the water companies would be transferred to us, the tax payers.

There is a better, less simple, solution: bsky.app/profile/laylamoran.bsky.social/post/3mcjwxf2cl525
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The huge debts are already transferred though, by way of price hikes.
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1 water ONLY companies werent as they were never publicly owned 2 Scottish water is publicly owned yet www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/04/sewage-in-scotlands-rivers-and-beaches-far-more-widespread-than-realised
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Can’t help but agree. However, I’ve given up hoping for socialist politics.
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Con alright
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I see this as a step in the right direction and hitting the let perfect not be the enemy of good kind of thinking. I completely agree the end goal should be public infrastructure being public also.
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Oops. Scottish water is publicly owned yet www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/04/sewage-in-scotlands-rivers-and-beaches-far-more-widespread-than-realised
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Private control of water is theft
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I just got my bill for 5 months of stinking hot end of summer (ran the air con a fair bit) and a freezing winter (flat is kept between 23-24 degrees)

£75.

Now can you see why the average person in Hungary votes for Orban?

It’s all state controlled.
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Totally agree!
What do you plan to do about the billions being stashed in the UK's international tax avoidance network?
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Water, Gas/Electric, Communications (telecoms, internet, postal), public transport, Sources of energy, any resource extraction, housebuilding healthcare and defence should ALL be nationalised and STAY nationalised through laws that prevent governments selling them off for a quick profit!
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Considering Welsh Water has had a pipe burst for the second consecutive January... Yes. Last year it was a more widespread outage, sure, but I doubt that matters to people in Conwy who can't wash anything today.
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Yawn
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Labour already have stated they favour corporate solutions that has been the solution since privatisation it has failed and consumers have paid ever higher prices and suffered increased pollution. If fines had been levelled pro rata to the pollution caused they would be bankrupt and un-investable.
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Absolutely correct on this one, Zack 👍
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Farage and Polanski are two sides of the same opportunist, populist coin. Peddling fantasies for political gain.
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Ragebait bot
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Nothing like Farage you tool
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Pahahaha ffs.. Look at the last labour manifesto, talk about peddling fantasy 🤦‍♂️... Farage is Temu Trump.. Zack wants a country for all, not just corporate shills and party donors... But hey enjoy your status quo..tory >labour>Tory>Labour.
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How shallow, try harder
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The frustrating part is that they keep trying to say that Labours issue is that they aren’t communicating their successes whereas all I’ve seen them do is hugely and dishonestly oversell what they’ve done for workers, renters, and the economy. It’s insidious.
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I'm still astonished that the English haven't rioted over this.
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Not to be trusted ,Labour are now a right wing party .
I certainly won't vote Labour for many reasons .
Kier Hardie would turn in his grave looking down on this lot .
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Yes, we never had bills going up or sewage in our rivers & sea, when water was in public hands *rollseyes*
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Yeah, it was terrible. But it was ours.
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Not to the extent that we do now. And you know what else we didn't have? Private individuals looting the public to the tune of billions of pounds.
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Pipe down, Scotland. This doesn’t concern you. Also, to all the pouty “and how do you fund that” nimbys, it could literally already be funded by the water bills that you pay; most of what you pay now is pure profit.
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It’s easy to criticise when you are not in a position to do anything, look at Farage. Sniping from the sidelines is all that’s ever going to be on offer to you. Currently still the new kid in town bright eyed and bushy tailed I think, soon be worn out nobody like most become.
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Publicly owned in Scotland
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So people in opposition should just the heck up then.
Only people in government should speak up.

Sounds fan-tas-tic.
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How is this done? legally, practically, economically, over what timescales, and how will service continuity be guaranteed? What government and other resources would that need, and what's the opportunity cost of losing that capability elsewhere? Any unexpected consequences to worry about?
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I'm all for nationalisation, the problem is how to make it happen and how much it would cost, especially now with having to increase the defence budgets.
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While I want to nationalise, that would burden us with more debt, there is a lib dem idea to make the companies into a public benefit company. This would stop the debt from falling into public hands, and stop another talking point from capital. Steal the few good ideas from the rest of govt.
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Another classic fudge. Starmer and Reeves are neoliberal to the core, backed by big business. The state is there to bail out business, and to let private companies get on with making a mess of our public services. Now there will be some intervention. Our other regulatory bodies are so effective. Lol
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Careful, 🇬🇧… you’re going to end up like 🇺🇸.
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That’s what the majority of the electorate are frightened of. I would personally throw out the USofA and Israeli ambassadors and end trade agreements that involve anything to do with chlorinated chicken or involvement in our NHS. We need to return to our neighbours in the EU
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Yes it IS a con. Starmer can trick anyone.
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Slave Labour Party: Party of Corporations
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What Labour has forgotten (and Tories didn't care about) is that a high cost of living drives inflation both directly and also through pressure for wage rises. Get the cost of living down directly or by some sort of subsidies, then inflation falls and British goods will be more competitive abroad.
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They’re going to Ofwat coach jackets and film a raid on a sewage works and point at some 40 year old equipment to prove how serious they are.
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Pathetic rhetoric as always...
#climateactionNOW

#HopeNotHate
#ChangeEverything
#BackZack
#VoteGreen
join.greenparty.org.uk
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Like Scotland
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Misspelling "renationalise" there. It was ours to begin with.
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Labour are a capitalist party, why would anyone would expect anything else from them?
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Name one party which isn't.
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In fact, even the Political Compass puts them at right wing, even during Corbyn's leadership.
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Shitting your pants and changing your shirt 🤦‍♂️
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Maybe that’s because we might be going on to a “realignment footing” as regards to the Trump dictatorship declarations of annexing territory that isn’t theirs…
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Exactly that. 👏👏👏
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All utilities should be run by the state. Like most sane countries do.

And not us all being held to ransom by billionaires.
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Without total control 'overhaul' means new plant and equipment and fixing problems private companies do not want to or are unable to mend. In the mean time dividends are paid, director get their wedge, and when completed they keep the nice shiny money earner.
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False. Scottish water is publicly owned yet www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/04/sewage-in-scotlands-rivers-and-beaches-far-more-widespread-than-realised
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Well said.
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The EU issued twice and investigation
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An
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Follows suit with their “change” promise, the problem being if the general public feel no positive difference.

Expectation mismanagement on steroids.
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Does it ever occur to Polanski that Labour might have looked closely at privatising the water companies ? The cost?
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For the good of public health, water & sewerage should never be in private hands, the services should be not for profit.
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Yet another issue that we in Scotland understand & implemented. It’s so sad that England still lives under corrupt capitalism.
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Absofriginlutely.. 👍👌.
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In Hong Kong my water bill is 20 quid every 3 months family of 3. State owned water company not sold off for profit.
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Oh they will keep on fleecing us as long as they can Zack and blaming minorities for it.
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Absolutely 💯!
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Zack, where would you find the up to £100bn cost of nationalising water and extricating it from the private owners. Will they all just gift their shareholding/assets back to the state?
Water is in a terrible state, a privatisation that should never have happened.
Solutions need to be more nuanced.
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The companies have huge amounts of debt. The assets will have been used to securities the debt. Let the companies go bust. The banks take control of the assets and the gov purchases the assets that become assets on the UK balance sheet. Unless the asset value is greater than the debt, the..
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The bold politics is requisition.

Given how much they've fleeced tax off to their donors, given the damage they continue to do, they'd be getting off lightly with that.
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Water is infrastructure, a public service.
There is no way any of it should be privatized.
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Pulling out of NATO is a sure vote loser. Just saying
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If Trump invades Greenland there won't be a NATO to pull out of
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NATO is pretty fucked at this point already
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Not for anyone, who can see that Nato is all but done now anyway.. Do you want to wait for Trump to implode it. 🤦‍♂️A more sustainable alliance without America was Zacks idea all along. right wing papers and the msm cry Zack wants to kill Nato, And some ate it all up. 🤣.indoctrination of ignorance
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Have you been in a coma for the last two weeks? That position has been pretty vindicated at this point.
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bsky.app/profile/zackpolanski.bsky.social/post/3mctu55vw6c2t
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Trouble is to nationalise the water we effectively need to buy out all the companies and where does money for that come from? Then the infrastructure will need heavy investment, more money needed. I agree it should be publicly owned but none of the people calling for it ever explain how.
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The water wars are coming...
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Oh shut up zack... we got bigger problems then water.... like WW3
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Enjoyed listening to Feargal tearing Water UK’s rep a new one on R4’s Today programme this morning.

Classic beeb, platforming an org that supports (and is beholden to) the terminally dysfunctional water industry.
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Just take them back. But no bailouts. You can't leverage the assets, take loans and pay out dividends without investing in infrastructure and expect us to bail you out. Investments have risks.
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Their big overhaul was clearly a stall for time, while allowing the profits and sewage to flow.
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You mean to say the ENGLISH privatised water...Scotland's water is NOT in private hands & guess what, the SNP saved it, Yep bcs the Labour party planned to sell off Scottish Water, lock stock & barrel, when thy wr at helm at Holyrood.
NO THANKS!!!!
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Don’t forget the broken promises of ‘investment in infrastructure’
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Re-nationalisation yes, but the private companies should have to pay the repair bill.
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If?
There is no real overhaul, it is business as usual. Casino economics
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Where does the money come from?
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100%.
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Water is already nationalised inScotland. Far better service! Please clarify that you mean England and Wales.
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If your water is nationalised, he's not talking about you is he 🤣.. Ffs 🤦‍♂️.
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💯 Name and shame the bosses, jail them or worse.
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It would be instructive to look at the powers that OFWAT and other regulators have NOW and which are NOT being used.
AN investigation into why not would be good too.
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Spokesman for the industry in BBC this morning was allowed to say, basically without comeback, that the challenges across the private and state-run water companies he deals with are the same 🤦‍♂️

Yes, I'm sure the challenges are largely the same... but I doubt the state-run ones are paying dividends
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OFWAT and the other industry guardians should be doing what they was set up to do. Protect the public from profiteering by the hedge/infrastrucure funds which are ripping us all off.
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^^^^ what he said!

People in the UK, please vote smartly next chance you get. Us expats don't have any voting rights so we're counting on you lot.
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