This is a slightly edited extract from an article originally published in The Telegraph on 21st October.
Britain is broken. Look at our national infrastructure and you will be reminded of this truth - nowhere more so than with our water industry.
Look at what has happened down in the South West. On Monday, I spent the day in Plymouth. It’s one of the most stunning parts of our country, surrounded by a magnificent coastline that should be the pride of the nation.
Instead, following recent contamination scares, people there are genuinely nervous to turn on their taps to drink a glass of water. This is Britain in 2026.
This situation simply cannot go on. We need a fundamental shake-up. That is why I announced in Plymouth on Monday that a Reform UK government would give serious consideration to taking a 50% stake in South West Water.
Now, the establishment will clutch their pearls at the very mention of state intervention. The usual suspects in Westminster and the City will cry foul, warning that we are scaring off international investors.
But let me be entirely clear. If you run a critical national infrastructure asset into the ground, load it with debt, poison our coastal waters and bleed the company dry to line your own pockets while the tap water isn’t safe to drink, you forfeit your right to protection.
Yes, the bondholders and shareholders would lose money under our plan. But given the astronomical dividends they have already pocketed off the backs of the British public, that wouldn’t be terribly unfair, would it? I say it is time to realign risk and reward.
Taking a 50% stake allows us to get the government back into the business of protecting its citizens. It gives us a commanding voice in the boardroom to steer the company back to doing what it desperately needs to do - which is providing safe, clean drinking water and cleaning up our seas so people can actually use them again, without fear of falling ill.
This follows our bold commitment on Thames Water, where we pledged to step in, buy the failing giant for a pound and place it into special administration.
We are also going to slash the suffocating red tape that has choked our infrastructure for decades by designating new reservoirs as nationally significant infrastructure, getting them built faster to secure our water supply for generations.
The Westminster political class has ignored these crises for years, hiding behind corporate lobbyists and regulators who lack the teeth to bite.
Reform UK is here to change the rules of the game. It is time to put the British people first, take back control of our essential utilities and restore common sense to our country.
Britain is broken. Look at our national infrastructure and you will be reminded of this truth - nowhere more so than with our water industry.
Look at what has happened down in the South West. On Monday, I spent the day in Plymouth. It’s one of the most stunning parts of our country, surrounded by a magnificent coastline that should be the pride of the nation.
Instead, following recent contamination scares, people there are genuinely nervous to turn on their taps to drink a glass of water. This is Britain in 2026.
This situation simply cannot go on. We need a fundamental shake-up. That is why I announced in Plymouth on Monday that a Reform UK government would give serious consideration to taking a 50% stake in South West Water.
Now, the establishment will clutch their pearls at the very mention of state intervention. The usual suspects in Westminster and the City will cry foul, warning that we are scaring off international investors.
But let me be entirely clear. If you run a critical national infrastructure asset into the ground, load it with debt, poison our coastal waters and bleed the company dry to line your own pockets while the tap water isn’t safe to drink, you forfeit your right to protection.
Yes, the bondholders and shareholders would lose money under our plan. But given the astronomical dividends they have already pocketed off the backs of the British public, that wouldn’t be terribly unfair, would it? I say it is time to realign risk and reward.
Taking a 50% stake allows us to get the government back into the business of protecting its citizens. It gives us a commanding voice in the boardroom to steer the company back to doing what it desperately needs to do - which is providing safe, clean drinking water and cleaning up our seas so people can actually use them again, without fear of falling ill.
This follows our bold commitment on Thames Water, where we pledged to step in, buy the failing giant for a pound and place it into special administration.
We are also going to slash the suffocating red tape that has choked our infrastructure for decades by designating new reservoirs as nationally significant infrastructure, getting them built faster to secure our water supply for generations.
The Westminster political class has ignored these crises for years, hiding behind corporate lobbyists and regulators who lack the teeth to bite.
Reform UK is here to change the rules of the game. It is time to put the British people first, take back control of our essential utilities and restore common sense to our country.
