Jonathan Hinder MP Column: The fight to take back control of our water
Across Pendle and Clitheroe, people have had enough. Enough of paying rising bills while local rivers like the Ribble are being polluted. Enough of watching private companies profit while standards in our water service collapse. And enough of a system that has let water bosses walk away with millions in bonuses, even when they’ve failed the basic test of running a public utility.
Last week, the Labour Government took a major step to change that. A new law is now in force which bans bonuses for executives at companies that pollute, fail their customers, or mismanage their finances. It applies to six firms – including United Utilities and Yorkshire Water, which supply our area and have both been caught failing key standards.
That means bonuses are now banned with immediate effect for the bosses of both companies. And it’s about time.
Over the past decade, Yorkshire Water has handed out nearly £13 million in bonuses. United Utilities has paid out over £25 million, including more than £1.3 million last year - all while presiding over serious environmental breaches and poor customer performance.
Let’s be honest: it’s a disgrace. If you can’t run a water company without polluting rivers and failing households, you shouldn’t be paid a bonus. You should be out of a job.
But while this action is welcome, it’s also overdue. In my personal view, the whole industry should be brought back into public ownership. Water is a basic human need. It should be run for the benefit of us all, not for private profit. Just like the NHS, just like education, and just like the energy grid - it belongs in public hands, not run for private profit.
That is my position. The government has not yet gone that far, but it is now taking meaningful action. £104 billion in investment has been secured to upgrade infrastructure. And for the first time in 30 years, ministers are stepping in to build new reservoirs, cutting through the red tape that blocked action for decades.
I support that approach – rebuilding the capacity of the state to do the things that only government can do, delivering for the public good.
For Pendle and Clitheroe this will mean clean rivers, more reliable service, and fairness in our system. It’s about making sure people here are never again treated as a cash machine for failing private firms.
The era of excuses is over. The water industry is on notice – and so it should be.
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