80s singing legend delivers ‘UK government lies’ message

Feargal Sharkey, the former lead vocalist of punk band The Undertones, was at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) earlier this month to deliver an enlarged letter to minister Emma Reynolds.

He was joined by Ash Smith and Professor Peter Hammond of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WAS), who were recently portrayed by David Thewlis and Jason Watkins in hit Channel 4 series Dirty Business.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire water campaigners reflect on Channel 4 drama

In addition, Baroness Jenny Jones was present as were campaigners Cat Hobbs and Sophie Conquest, with the wider protest organised by group WeOwnIt.

Although, Ms Reynolds was in China, the group delivered the letter which looked to “call out” lies about putting Thames Water into public ownership.

The UK’s largest water company, which serves approximately 16 million people, has been criticised in recent years for sewage pollution in waterways, rising bills and service disruption, with the regulator Ofwat issuing it a record fine of over £120 million last year.

Feargal Sharkey and others delivering the letter to the Government (Image: WASP)

However the Government has refused to transfer it into state ownership and, after the protest, again said “nationalisation is not the answer”.

A spokesperson for Defra said: “It would cost taxpayers £100 billion 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.”

In particular, the campaigners for nationalisation take issue with two points.

Firstly that it would take years and would involve complex legal processes and secondly it would divert effort from cleaning up rivers, lakes and seas.

Mr Smith of WASP said: “The public are being treated as fools and the government is simply repeating a series of lies to try to stop people from knowing that water privatisation has been and still is a massive scam.”

He said it had diverted over £85 billion of money to shareholders, loaded the company with debt and let the country’s sewage infrastructure rot.

Feargal Sharkey and others delivering the letter to the Government (Image: WASP)

He added: “It does not have to be like this, and experts have shown that modern efficient public ownership can be done swiftly and economically with the financiers taking the hit they deserve, not the public, for a change.”

Currently a petition that calls for a referendum on water ownership – set up by WASP – is on over 150,000 signatures.

A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We remain focused on securing a recapitalisation to restore financial stability, continue our operational turnaround and deliver essential services for 16 million customers.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire stars of Channel 4 show in water referendum call

“We are currently undertaking the biggest upgrade of our network in 150 years with a record capital investment, and we are already making significant progress in improving performance for customers and the environment, including reducing pollutions by 20 per cent.”

The company said its latest results shows that 55p of every £1 received in revenue is invested in infrastructure, 37p is for operational expenditure and 8p is given to lenders.

Mr Smith said that public ownership would see the company’s debts – which reportedly run up to £20 billion – cancelled or greatly reduced and extra money made available for investment.