Hold a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership
Hold a binding national referendum on whether the water industry should be returned to public ownership. Water is a basic human necessity; we believe our privatised system has failed, so the public should decide who owns and controls it.
Signatures
121,455
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 10,000/10,000 · reached
Debate threshold (100,000) · 100,000/100,000 · reached
- 30 APR 2026100,000 signatures reachedEligible to be considered for debate
- 23 APR 2026Government respondedDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsGovernment reply
Nationalisation would take years and involve complex legal processes, diverting effort from cleaning up rivers, lakes and seas. We are taking action now through stronger regulation and enforcement.
Read full response - 08 APR 202610,000 signatures reachedEligible for a government response
- 01 APR 2026Petition opened for signaturesCreated by Ashley Paul Smith
Background
Private water companies have about 62 million captive customers whose bills have delivered over £85 Bn to shareholders; money that in public ownership could have been spent on fixing our infrastructure. No other country in the world has privatised water like this. We believe that proposed government reforms to regulation show that water company owners are being favoured over the public, and this is not right in a democracy. A referendum would give the public back its voice about its water.