As public outrage at water companies disregard for the law, abuse of our money, neglect of our water systems, pollution of our waterways, continues to mount it is an extraordinary act of arrogance to see the water companies increase rewards for CEOs and Finance Directors rising to £25M this year (Guardian 2026).
Whilst the government has fallen into the trap of believing the problem of water pollution is complex, and the fault of regulation, the People’s Commission on the Water Sector undertook a truly independent review and found that the cause was commodification of water and the lack of national strategy. The shorthand is that privatisation has led to pollution for profit, but that same shorthand is leading to proposals for ideologically driven short-term fix solutions, for instance replacing water companies with mutuals, that do not address the root causes of the water crisis.
One solution being proposed is the move the water companies into Mutuals, companies owned by members (which could be the public) rather than shareholders. They vary enormously from charitable trusts to non-profit company, consumer co-operative, multistakeholder mutuals (all of which are being used to describe alternatives to for-profit, shareholder-owned private water companies). Whilst this looks an attractive solution with the possibility of the public owning the problem, on its own it is problematic as water remains a commodity rather than a public good, financing costs can be high, and the water system as a whole remains fragmented.
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