Actor and comedian Stephen Fry is backing the public ownership of water utilities, as he called the current status quo “insane”.
It comes amid strong criticism about water companies dumping sewage.
Also, Moody’s recently downgraded Thames Water’s credit rating to “junk” status, indicating that the influential ratings agency thinks the utilities company is likely to default on its debt.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has ruled out temporarily nationalising Thames Water, saying the new Government wants to “clean up our water” on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
When asked for his reaction to the interview, Fry said: “The thing that I picked up on that really mattered to me, and I think matters to an enormous number of people, is the water (issue).
“In the days of Brexit, we heard that phrase used again and again ‘take back control’, but not to have control of our water always struck me as insane for a country not have control of its rivers, lakes and drinking water.”
When asked for clarity on whether he was talking about public ownership by Victoria Derbyshire, who was sitting in for Laura Kuenssberg, Fry said: “Yes, before the railways and it maybe a good idea to nationalise them, but surely the waterways, every single river in our country is polluted and contaminated with an mixture of raw sewage and run-off…
“(It’s) appalling. It’s a disgrace, and anyone who actually lives in this country should feel in their deepest heart is an urgent thing to put right, our water is our blood stream.”
An annual report by Environment Agency said there was an increase in serious pollution incidents last year, which rose from 44 in 2022 to 47 in 2023.
It named the water companies Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water as the cause of 90% of those incidents.
Fry also clashed with shadow foreign minister Alicia Kearns, calling her Conservative Party “very anti-public sector”.
Ms Kearns defended her party’s actions in Government, saying they always followed an independent review of public sector pay, and were “honest” with the public about the cost.
Mr Reed was also asked on the show about saying “water bosses responsible for repeated illegal sewage dumping will face criminal charges” and that he will ban “the payment of their multimillion-pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth” in the Mail on Sunday.
However, he could not say, when asked by Derbyshire, what level of dumping would need to happen before criminal charges would be triggered.
He said: “What I want to do is clean up our water. We’ll do it by making the water bosses face criminal charges if they are responsible for persistent, severe levels of illegal sewage dumping.
“We will ban the payment of their multimillion-pound bonuses while they’re overseeing that kind of failure.
“We will ring-fence customers’ money that is earmarked for spending on investing in the sewer system. So, if it’s not spent on that, it will be refunded to customers in a discount on their bills.”
