Why England’s Drinking Water Is at Risk – and How Nationalisation Can Fix It
In July 2025, the latest Drinking Water Report for England confirmed what many communities have suspected for years: the quality, safety, and reliability of our drinking water is being undermined by a system that puts profit before people.
While the document is filled with technical data, buried within it are clear warning signs – from bacterial contamination to legislative gaps – that raise serious concerns about the state of our water infrastructure and regulation under privatised ownership.
This is not just about dirty water. It’s about accountability, public health, and the consequences of leaving essential services in the hands of private companies.
What the Report Tells Us
The report identifies several key problems, especially in private water supplies. These are water sources not managed by public utilities or local authorities, and the issues are stark:
Arsenic contamination was reported affecting up to 300 consumers, with levels peaking at nearly 60 micrograms per litre – double the recommended safe limit. Authorities had to serve legal notices to force treatment systems to be maintained and to switch to a backup mains supply.
Coliform bacteria, a strong indicator of faecal contamination, was detected across multiple water treatment works (WTWs), including Porthellick, Huntington, and Seedy Mill. These are clear signs of unsafe water entering distribution systems – a fundamental failure of basic treatment protocols.
Taste issues and turbidity (cloudiness) were also cited, which may sound minor but often signal deeper infrastructure or chemical dosing problems. Several water works, such as Frankley and Lartington, scored high on the Compliance Risk Index (CRI) – a key measure of water safety breaches.
The report also highlights regulatory loopholes in Regulation 8, particularly relating to new housing developments, dual-pipe systems, and temporary events like festivals. These are weak points where safety oversight is lacking, and the risk of contaminated water reaching consumers is growing.
The Real Cost of Privatisation
This report doesn’t explicitly mention the companies behind the failures, but the structure of England’s water industry makes it impossible to ignore who’s responsible.
Since water was privatised in 1989, the sector has been run by regional monopolies owned by shareholders. These companies have consistently prioritised dividends and executive pay over investment in infrastructure, safety, and long-term sustainability.
Meanwhile:
- Sewage spills into rivers and seas have reached record highs
- Customers are paying more for water than ever before
- Infrastructure, like reservoirs and treatment plants, is ageing and under-maintained
One damning chart in the report notes the increasing percentage of reservoirs over 10 years in service, suggesting declining investment in building or upgrading essential storage. This is not just neglect. It’s calculated cost-cutting.
When a water system is run for profit, public health becomes a line item. Maintenance gets delayed. Corners are cut. Emergencies are responded to only when there’s a threat of fines or bad press.
What Nationalisation Offers
Nationalisation is not a radical idea. It’s a practical solution. It means taking the water companies back into public hands, ending the extraction of profit from a basic human right, and making water a public good once more.
Here’s what a publicly owned water system could deliver:
1. Accountability
Instead of hiding behind shareholder boards, water managers would be accountable to local communities and Parliament. Regulatory failures like those in this report could be addressed transparently and proactively.
2. Investment
Money currently paid out as dividends (over £60 billion since privatisation) could be reinvested in infrastructure, such as upgrading old reservoirs, repairing leaky mains, and improving treatment systems to prevent contamination.
3. Public Health First
Decisions would be based on what’s safest, not what’s cheapest. That means earlier detection of arsenic, faster responses to bacterial outbreaks, and proper treatment at all levels of the supply chain – including Regulation 8 networks and private supplies.
4. Environmental Protection
A nationalised system would support joined-up strategies for climate resilience, reducing over-extraction from rivers, and ending sewage discharges without needing to protect shareholder profits.
But What About Regulation? Isn’t That Enough?
The problem is that regulators are toothless in a privatised system. Reports like this prove that even when unsafe levels of bacteria or chemicals are detected, action is often reactive and slow.
For example, in the case of the arsenic exceedances, only after contamination was detected were notices issued. This is too little, too late. And with fragmented oversight, especially in private or temporary supplies, there’s no guarantee of prevention.
In a public system, regulation becomes part of governance, not a separate watchdog forced to negotiate with companies that are often more powerful than the state agencies meant to oversee them.
The Public is Paying – in More Ways Than One
We’re already paying higher bills than many other countries with public systems, and now we’re paying with degraded water quality and environmental damage.
The truth is: we’ve had thirty-five years to judge privatisation. And by every measure that matters – safety, cost, sustainability – it has failed.
Water should never be a business. It should be a public right, managed not for profit, but for people.
Conclusion: It’s Time to Take Back Control
This drinking water report confirms the deep cracks in our current water system. Unsafe levels of contamination, poor regulatory coverage, ageing infrastructure, and growing risks to both health and supply are all on the rise – not by accident, but by design.
Water privatisation has delivered what it was always meant to: wealth for the few and risk for the rest of us.
It’s time to take it back. For safety. For fairness. For the planet.
Nationalise our water. Rebuild trust. Protect our health.
Because water belongs to all of us, not the shareholders.