Right now, the UK is perfectly positioned to end the never-ending nightmare that is privatised water. Many of these obviously corrupt companies are up to their eyeballs in debt; at the same time, their failure to maintain the water network has never been more apparent. In other words, we could renationalise these indebted companies – like Thames Water – with pretty much total public support. The problem is servile worm Andy Burnham would rather kowtow to the Yank vulture capitalists:
So the great champion of public ownership doesn’t even have the facilities to nationalise Thames Water while it pumps billions of litres of shit into our rivers.
Turns out Andy Burnham’s politics are just vibes after all.
Absolutely pathetic. https://t.co/WgsfsRGSNR
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) August 24, 2026
Pathetic
Britain is one of few countries in the world to have a fully privatised water network, and the only one in Europe. The reason for this is because privatising water was always an obvious disaster waiting to happen, and most countries didn’t have a leader as societally suicidal as Margaret Thatcher.
While all of the water companies are a travesty, Thames Water is the sewage load that floated to the top. And as we reported in July 2026:
The company, which has a debt pile of nearly £20bn, is on the brink of collapse. Since June 2025, Thames Water’s creditors, a group of US hedge funds, have been negotiating with Ofwat to formally take over the utility.
As part of the proposed deal, the creditors want to waive fines until 2030. And they want to suspend or ‘significantly modify’ pollution and performance targets. The creditors also want to raise bills for households beyond the level currently set by Ofwat.
A We Own It said at the time, Britain’s choices were to:
line the pockets of US hedge funds with our money. Or, they can put households and the environment first.
Clearly, Burnham is choosing the former.
SAR for Thames Water (or not)
As the Times’ Steven Swinford reported, Burnham indicated that he planned to put Thames Water in a ‘special administration regime’ (SAR). The company would have existed as a SAR until the government could find a buyer. In other words, Burnham only ever intended to temporarily nationalise the failed company. We’d say Burnham is literally the embodiment of ineffectual half-measures, but now he’s backtracked on temporary nationalisation, we can’t even claim that.
Swinford added:
However, The Times has been told that officials have raised concerns about the risk to taxpayers and the potential for legal challenges. The officials are also concerned about the “practical barriers” to putting Thames Water into administration in the first place
The government is now conducting further work to establish if there is a “viable option” for putting the company into administration, but it is likely to take several months. Ministers have not ruled out doing so but it is looking increasingly challenging
Water companies like Thames Water have racked up colossal debts by paying money to shareholders instead of maintaining their networks. The idea that these companies have a legal leg to stand on is ridiculous. And if they do, there should be a criminal investigation into whoever drafted these contracts.
The British public never consented to our water being used to enrich these greedy Yank swine.
It was bad enough in decades past; it’s a national emergency now that we’re facing record-breaking droughts.
British farmers say they’re reaching crisis point — and next year’s food production could be at risk
The worst drought in 50 years has hammered crops, with the NFU estimating a £370 million hit to wheat production
READ MORE: https://t.co/2VrZpFVLAK pic.twitter.com/6mpVA4oZQM
— FarmingUK (@FarmingUK) August 22, 2026
Bills to pay
Swinford added:
The emergency SAR — the first for a water company — would risk leaving the taxpayer with a bill for the £2 billion that Thames Water believes it needs to keep running until the end of next year unless an alternative solution can be found quickly. There are further concerns about how easy it would be to find a buyer for the ailing company after it is taken into administration
The problems detailed above are the problems of favouring temporary nationalisation over permanent. If we were to run our own water network – as all other European countries do – we could charge citizens a fair amount for their water while investing profits back into the network. It sounds revolutionary, but it’s literally what 90% of countries do.
If Burnham doesn’t take Thames Water into public ownership, he’ll go down in history as a same-old prime minister delivering sewage in our rivers and spiralling bills to households. This is his one and only chance, if he doesn’t take it he’ll be a laughing stock.
The idea that we can’t take back this company which has literally gone bust, been in breach of its licence for two years and has put forward several proposals for illegal sewage is a joke. It makes a mockery of households, of our entire water system, of the special administration regime, of England. Why should a handful of US creditors – whose own water is 87% publicly owned – cow a British Prime Minister into submission? Why can’t he stand up for us like the Blair government did when Railtrack went bust?
Officials should absolutely be investigating how to reward this failure as little as possible but let’s be clear – the shareholders don’t need compensation, they have already walked away. The creditors are expecting a huge haircut to the debt. So that means just refinancing a vastly reduced debt more cheaply in the public sector. The company can be brought into special administration on two counts – it’s insolvent and it’s failing to fulfil its statutory duties.
Andy Burnham went to court to fight for bus passengers in Manchester. He must continue defending the public interest if he wants to stay popular. The alternative is to rubber stamp the rip off of English households for decades to come. Because there has never been a cheaper or better time to take back Thames Water.
Costs mounting with Thames Water
Make no mistake; failure to permanently nationalise water is going to cost us a lot more than £2bn in the long run. These reckless businesses are going to fail again and again, and when they go under, they’ll dump their debt and disappear into the wind.
Featured image via Jeff Overs / Toby Melville
By Willem Moore
