The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set out how it estimated that nationalising the water industry would cost approximately £100 billion.

Environment Agency Minister Steve Reed has asked Ofwat to assess £1.3 million payments to Yorkshire Water CEO Nicola Shaw “as a matter of urgency”.

Defra Minister Steve Reed has announced that the Government is to carry out a full review of the water sector, saying that “fourteen years of Tory failure have left much of our infrastructure in disrepair.”

Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell has said the process of renationalising the water sector would begin during the first 100 days of a Labour government.

A major new international survey has revealed that the satisfaction rating for Great Britain’s water and sewerage services is the second highest in the world.

The UK water sector has moved swiftly to rebut Labour Party criticism of private ownership and launch a forceful and detailed defence of the benefits of privatisation in response to plans outlined in the Labour Party Manifesto published today.

Households in the UK could lose an average of nearly £1000 each under Labour’s nationalisation plans, according to a new study by economic consultants NERA.

Environment Agency Chief Sir James Bevan is warning that if the water industry wants to survive in its present form and to retain the current economic model “ it needs to up its game” and show that private companies can act in the public interest.

Support for water nationalisation has slumped following last week’s exposure of Labour’s plan to hit the savings of nearly six million pensioners if they take the English water industry into government ownership. 

A recent Parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on the future of the UK water sector saw calls for the water companies in England to be based on the Scottish Water public sector model or the Welsh Water ownership model with “democratic public ownership” via new consumer and employee trusts.