Adrian Ramsay speaking at Green Party Conference

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has renewed the party’s call for water to be brought into public ownership. This follows the release of data on sewage discharges by the Environment Agency.

The data showed that water companies spilled raw sewage for a record time of 3.61m hours into sea and rivers in England in 2024

Ramsay, reacting to the data released by the Environment Agency,  said: “Four million hours of raw sewage were dumped into our rivers and seas last year—an utter disgrace.”

“It is shameful that we cannot enjoy our natural waters because raw sewage is being pumped into our rivers. While I’m glad Steve Reed acknowledges the severity of this issue, the Government’s response lacks ambition”

“Water privatisation has failed. We have worse water quality, crumbling infrastructure, weaker environmental standards, and higher bills. There is only one solution: bringing water back into public hands, so the profits go into fixing our crumbling infrastructure rather than into shareholders’ pockets.”