A debt-ridden, leaking, polluting industry, owned largely by foreign investment firms, private equity and pension funds who have presided over decades of underinvestment most shockingly illustrated by the scale of raw sewage dumping into rivers: that is the privatised English water industry in 2024.
It is a global anomaly. Over the last three decades it has evolved into a notoriously complex system of shadow ownership that has loaded debt on to the balance sheet, while providing rich dividends for investors.
