Don’t back down on pledge to put water firms under public control, Burnham told

A sewage treatment works next to the River Thames in Slough. The pumping of sewage into rivers and seas has become a major scandal in Britain. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Key allies of Andy Burnham have warned the prime minister not to back down over his promises to put water companies under public control, after details emerged about the prime minister’s plan to give mayors more oversight of the industry.

Mathew Lawrence and Mark McVitie, who helped provide an intellectual underpinning to Burnham’s project over the summer, have both warned that merely giving politicians oversight of key utilities rather than financial control will fall short of what the prime minister promised.