Campaigners have stepped-up pressure on the government to bring the crisis hit water industry back into public ownership
Government claims that it would cost more than £100billion to return the crisis hit water industry to public ownership have been labelled a “lie”.
Environmentalist and former frontman of The Undertones Feargal Sharkey disputed the figure, which has been used by ministers, insisting most debt ridden suppliers would be bankrupt if the cost of all the repairs and other vital work needed were taken into account.
“The £100billion is complete and utter nonsense,” he told the Mirror.
He said the research, cited by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), placed a value of £21billion on embattled Thames Water alone. Yet US private equity giant KKR abandoned a rescue deal for Thames Water worth £4billion last June.
The celebrity said: “Defra is trying to tell you that company is worth £21billion? You’ve lost your mind. It’s a lie and fabrication and Defra needs to own up, apologise to everybody, so we can have a serious, grown-up conversation about the future of the water industry.”
He went on: “This industry is in desperate need of restructuring and refinancing and the longer government fiddle around the edges, kept moving deckchairs around, the longer it will take to get to the nub of the issue.”
Andy Burnham, Labour candidate for the Makerfield byelection and a potential new leader of the party, has already said Thames Water should be nationalised.
Mr Sharkey, appearing alongside other protesters outside Defra’s Westminster offices, urged Mr Burnham to go further. “The whole industry’s got to go,” he said. “Absolutely, without exception.”
It came as one of the heroes of Channel 4’s ‘Dirty Business’ docu-drama called water privatisation a “scam” that needs to end.
The event was used to mark the handing in a letter to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds highlighting the need for action and signed by Ash Smith from Windrush Against Sewage Pollution.
It followed the government’s response to a petition for a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership.
Mr Smith’s fight, along with that of fellow campaigner Peter Hammond, to highlight the disgrace of raw sewage being pumped into their beloved river formed part of the hit Channel 4 programme.
Mr Hammond said: “We have to get rid of the profit motive which has driven the water companies to take all the customers’ money, not use it to upgrade all the works, and then given it away.” He said that while nationalisation was one option, others existed that should also be considered.
Mr Smith said: “We need to end the scam that is privatisation.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “Nationalisation is not the answer. It would cost taxpayers £100billion and take years to unpick the current ownership model, during which investment would dry up and sewage pollution into our rivers would get worse.
“This government has taken swift action to hold water companies to account. Our once-in-a-generation reforms will establish a new, single regulator with more teeth and greater powers to drive transparency including MOT-style checks on water company assets and ‘no notice’ inspections to rebuild customer trust and protect the environment.”