A Sheffield MP has announced plans to work with constituents to support an option for public ownership of water companies.
Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake held a meeting in Crosspool on Thursday 26 February where she was joined on stage by Sophie Conquest, a campaigner at WeOwnIt, local councillor Minesh Parekh and fellow MP Clive Lewis.
She opened the meeting by telling constituents that this would be the first in a series of conversations that she would hold on the topic in order to gauge how her constituents felt about it.
She said: “Yorkshire Water has been a running issue for several years now.”
She referred to the company’s own figure which suggests 95 billion litres of water had been lost in 2024 and added that “at the same time sewage and raw sewage has been leaking into our waterways on 68,000 occasions.”
It also showed that the billions of pounds in debt taken on by Yorkshire Water over the years is now being paid off by customers.
Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South took then took the stand: “What do I want to do? What am I interested in? I’m interested in democracy, I’m interested in the cost of living crisis, I’m interested in the climate crisis, and I’m interested in anti-corruption.”
He said that this is what drove him to table a Private Members Bill calling for public ownership of water companies.
Yorkshire Water continues to affirm that the £37 million pounds given in dividends to its parent company Kelda Group has gone back into the company, rather than going to shareholders.
Yorkshire Water maintains that they are doing their utmost to improve the services that they are providing to consumers. In the companies 2024 report it estimated losses of 240 million litres of water a day, down 15% over five years. It has also said that the 5.6% rise in bills is to invest in an £8.3 billion pound investment in Yorkshire’s infrastructure.
Yorkshire Water continues to pay off interest on corporate loans and debt at a cost of £286 million a year for the seven years preceding 2024. The company maintains that it has its debts under control.
ShefNews has approached Yorkshire Water for comment.