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Bringing utilities back into public ownership would be supported by the majority of voters, a YouGov poll has found, with more people favouring publicly owned water companies than either bus or rail services.
According to the poll of more than 1,700 adults across Great Britain, 63% of people believe water should be returned to the public sector, while 14% see merit in a combination of public and private ownership and just 8% support water companies remaining in private hands.
Public ownership of energy was favoured by 55% of respondents, while 10% said energy belongs in the private sector and 20% preferred a combination of the two.
For comparison, support for public ownership of bus and rail services stood at 50% and 57% respectively.
There was cross-party support for the public ownership of water, which was favoured by 80% of Labour voters, 58% of Conservative voters and 70% of Liberal Democrat voters. Very nearly half of Conservative voters (47%) supported the public ownership of energy, compared to 71% of Labour voters and 59% of Liberal Democrat voters.
Older people tended to be more in favour of renationalisation of both energy and water than younger people, with 70% of over 65 year olds thinking water should be publicly owned compared to 51% of 18 to 24 year olds. The figures for energy were 59% and 46% respectively.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves ruled out the renationalisation of energy and water in July as going against the Labour party’s fiscal plan. The issue became a key debate topic in the 2019 general election after the party pledged to take energy and water back into public ownership as part its manifesto under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Economist and University of Oxford professor Sir Dieter Helm warned in an essay last week that unless it is reformed, the water sector will undergo a series of crises that will ultimately lead to its renationalisation.
The public perception of utilities will be discussed in detail at Utility Week Forum on 8-9 November in London. Find out more here.
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