Thames Water has become a by-word for incompetence in utilities management. Having managed to discharge raw sewage into the region’s waterways for almost 300,000 hours in 2024^[1], the company faced record breaking fines from Ofwat this year. In an ironic twist, Thames Water pleaded poverty when negotiating the fine downwards- committing to paying less than 20% of the £122.7 million fine within the next four and a half years. A fine made larger and of course less affordable by the £170 million in dividends paid out over the last two years.^[2] The failure of water companies across the country is being rewarded with huge executive salaries: The average pay for water company CEOs in 2022 was £1.7 million.^[3]

People of Oxford are fed up of polluted waterways that used to be fit for leisure activities, fed up of aging burst water pipes flooding our streets^[4], and dismayed at the daft plans for an enormous reservoir which tears up local landscape and is costly and un-necessary.^[5]

Yes, we have been here before, our Council passed a motion pushing for the nationalisation of Thames Water back in January 2023. But the government still chooses not to take bold action to take back control of our water supply, deciding instead that a new regulator will solve the problems. Our Council has the opportunity to push for a rethink, to urge the government to renationalise Thames Water.

This Council resolves to:

-          Request that the Leader or Deputy Leader of the Council writes to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Emma Reynolds, with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Water and Flooding Emma Hardy, stating that water privatisation has failed the people of Oxford and that our water supplier needs to be brought in to public hands.

-          Request that the Leader or Deputy Leader of the Council writes to Thames Water CEO Chris Weston, seeking an explanation for the deplorable state of our water infrastructure. Asking, why our city suffered so much disruption from burst water mains this summer, and what is being done to ensure that the same won’t be repeated again.

-          Request that the Leader or Deputy Leader of the Council writes to Chris Weston seeking a resolution of when we will see an end to routine (outside of recognised extreme wet weather conditions) dumping of raw sewerage overflow in to Oxford’s local waterways.

-          Request that the Leader or Deputy Leader of the Council engages with local groups such as Windrush Against Sewage Pollution and Boycott Thames Water, to establish what more the Council can do to support their campaigns and to push for better standards from our water supplier.

This motion was not taken as the time allocated for debate had finished.