A group of academics with expertise in economics, water governance and legislation, in an exclusive report seen by The Guardian, found that public ownership of the water industry is the best way to cut bills, improve the quality of water from our taps and cut sewage pollution.
The report published by the "people's commission" argued that bringing water under public governance would boost transparency while slashing the costs of investments and prioritising public and environmental needs over the shareholder gains. This publication aimed to address the concerns that the government is not considering public ownership of the water industry in its recent review.
Ewen McGaughey, who is the professor of law at King's College London and one of the academics involved in producing the report, said: "We all want clean water, and in the latest YouGov poll 82% of the British public said that we should bring our water into public ownership.
"Our recommendations are that the British public is right, the evidence supports them, and we should move to a new modern, public water system because this is the best way to cut bills, stop pollution, invest in repairs and give everyone a voice. We can have clean water, or privatised water, but we can’t have both."
Some current estimates state that it would cost about £99bn to nationalise the water companies in England and Wales. People's commission argues that these costs are significantly inflated, and with many water firms being billions in debt, their value would be near zero.
The report recommends using a special administration process set out in the Water Industry Act 1991, which would allow the water companies to be shifted to public ownership without expensive buyouts, which could be triggered if a company cannot pay its debts or is not performing its statutory duties; such as breaching its permits, failing to properly treat wastewater and dumping raw sewage into the environment.
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