Bring water, rail, and energy into democratic public ownership

Privatisation was sold to us as a way to improve services through competition. Forty years on, we can assess whether that promise was kept. Water companies have accumulated £72 billion in debt while paying out £78 billion in dividends. Train fares have risen by 20% above inflation since privatisation. Energy companies post record profits while fuel poverty doubles.

The common thread is that these are natural monopolies. There is no meaningful consumer choice. You cannot switch to a different set of water pipes. Competition does not exist in any real sense, so the theoretical benefits of privatisation never materialise. What does materialise is profit extraction from captive customers.

Public ownership does not mean going back to the 1970s. It means democratic accountability, reinvestment of surpluses, and services run for the people who use them rather than the shareholders who own them. Scotland already has publicly owned water through Scottish Water. It works. It is not radical. It is simply what most of Europe already does.