The Cost of Public v Private Ownership

We asked the government for the costs over the next 5 and 30 years of public ownership versus private ownership. We did this because the government says it will not re-nationalise water because it is too expensive in public ownership. The People’s Commission found its cleaner, cheaper  and fairer to run our water in public ownership. It turns out Defra does not know because it hasn’t investigated the costs because……its not government policy to renationalise water. Chicken and Egg…

Here is the letter:

Dear Prof Becky Malby,

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: Financial and non-financial cost of private ownership of the water industry

Thank you for your request for information of 11 December 2025 about the financial and non-financial cost of private ownership of the water industry. We have handled your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs).

The EIRs apply to requests for environmental information, which is a broad category of information defined in regulation 2 of the EIRs. Public authorities are required to handle requests for environmental information under the EIRs. They give similar access rights to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Your information request and our response are set out below.

Information held by the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs on the ongoing financial and non-financial costs to the public of continuing with the current privatised model versus the financial and non-financial costs of public ownership of the water industry. Please provide this information in two parts:

1. The comparative costs over the rest of PR24

2. The comparative costs over the following 30 years.

We are writing to advise you that the information that you have requested is not held by Defra. This is because the government has no intention to nationalise and therefore has not assessed the ongoing costs of continuing with the current privatised model versus public ownership of the water industry. The exception at regulation 12(4)(a) of the EIRs, which relates to information which is not held at the time when an applicant’s request is received, therefore applies to the information you have requested.

Regulation 12(4)(a) is a qualified exception, which usually means that a public authority is required to conduct a public interest test to determine whether or not information should be disclosed or withheld. However, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is the independent regulator for requests made under the EIRs, takes the view that a public interest test in cases where the information is not held would serve no useful purpose. Therefore, in line with the ICO’s view, Defra has not conducted a public interest test in this case.

We attach an annex giving contact details should you be unhappy with the service you have received.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact us.

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Team

InformationRequests@defra.gov.uk