England’s water crisis isn’t about privatization, says government review author

The privatization of England’s water system isn’t the root cause of its current problems, according to Sir Jon Cunliffe, the former Bank of England deputy governor leading the Labour government’s comprehensive water industry review. Cunliffe, who previously helped reform banking regulations after the 2008 financial crisis, cautioned against viewing nationalization as a silver bullet solution to the sector’s mounting challenges.

The water industry review comes at a critical time for England, as the country grapples with a sewage contamination scandal that has polluted rivers and coastlines, frequent water outages affecting millions of households, and inadequate infrastructure to handle both droughts and extreme weather events. Public frustration has grown as water companies have faced criticism for prioritizing shareholder profits while essential services deteriorate.

Cunliffe’s preliminary findings suggest that simply changing ownership structure—from private to public control—wouldn’t automatically resolve these deep-seated issues. Instead, he emphasized that England’s water problems require more complex, multifaceted solutions that address regulatory oversight, infrastructure investment, and operational management regardless of whether companies remain privately owned.

The review represents a significant policy moment for the Labour government, which must balance public calls for nationalization against practical considerations of cost, implementation challenges, and effectiveness. Cunliffe’s expertise in financial regulation reform positions him to evaluate whether the current private system can be fixed through better oversight and incentives, or whether more dramatic structural changes are needed to ensure reliable, clean water services for England’s 56 million residents.