PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF WATER

Model Contemporary Motion for 2026 Labour Party Conference

By Mainstream and SERA

Submission guidance can be found here.

Please keep us posted on the progress of the motion in your CLP. You can contact us on info@mainstreamlabour.org to let us know whether it passes and has been sent in to the Labour Party.

The deadline for contemporary motions is 5PM on Thursday 17th September.

Conference notes the major Environment Agency report published on 6th August showing that no river or waterway in England is free of toxic chemicals, and that the percentage of English rivers with ‘good ecological status’ has decreased to 14.3%, despite the legal target being 77%.

Conference further notes that the privatisation of water has directly resulted in elevated costs for working people, as evidenced by research from Common Wealth, the University of Greenwich and UNISON respectively. It has also led to increasing levels of pollution in rivers and coastal waters, damaging our environment, wildlife and creating serious risks to human health.

Conference further notes that 82% of the public support public ownership of water, according to YouGov.

Conference believes that England’s system of privatised water and pollution profiteering is a national scandal and one of the clearest examples of the Thatcherite neoliberal policies harming people and planet that this Government is working to end.

Conference further believes that building a new economic settlement that can provide affordability, good growth, ecological resilience and accountability requires a rolling back of privatisation of essential services like water, and direct public investment, provision, ownership and coordination.

Conference further believes that the Government should take action to reverse the privatisation of water in England as the first step toward ending neoliberalism and building a new economy with tangible benefits felt in every community.

Conference calls on the Government to urgently return water in England into public ownership.

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