Who owns England's water: debt, dividends and bills, and what public ownership would change

What was announced

The cap on government shareholdings in England's water companies is to go

The Government's release of 29 September 2026 says the strengthened Water Bill will remove the limits set in the Water Act 1989 on government ownership of shares in the major water and sewerage companies in England, and the associated restriction on the Government acquiring shares in them. It gives the limits as between 1 and 3 per cent, varying by company, and says the change applies in England. It does not announce the purchase of any shares. Labour's conference material describes the same change as removing the Thatcher era ban on government ownership of water companies.

What changes

The limits on the Government's shareholding in each water and sewerage company in England, and the restriction on it buying shares, are removed.

Where

England. Scotland and Northern Ireland already have publicly owned water; Welsh Water is a not for profit company with no shareholders.

What does not

The Government says the sector will continue to rely on private investment. No company is nationalised by the change.

The law

Section 89 of the Water Act 1989 sets a target investment limit for the Government's shareholding in each company and bars it from acquiring shares once a limit is fixed. The release cites the Act but not the section.

Next

The Government says more detail will come in its 10 year plan for Britain, later this year, alongside the Water Bill announced in the King's Speech of May 2026.

“The Prime Minister announced today (29 September) that the strengthened Water Bill will remove the current limits on government ownership of shares in the major water and sewerage companies in England.”

Who owns them now

Three companies are listed, one has no shareholders, and the rest belong to investment consortiums

The ten water authorities of England and Wales were sold in 1989: in November that year 2,183 million shares in the ten companies were offered at 240p each, 100 per cent of their share capital. Today, in the Independent Water Commission's words, only three of the water and sewerage companies remain publicly listed, seven are privately owned and one, Welsh Water, has a not for profit model. The private owners are mainly pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and infrastructure investors, many from overseas. The table gives each company's owners as its own 2025-26 report states them.

What they owe

£76.3bn of net debt, and 8 companies above Ofwat's 70 per cent gearing level

Ofwat puts the companies' combined net debt at £76.3bn at 31 March 2025, up from £64.4bn in March 2023. Measured against the regulatory capital value of their assets, average gearing was 67.9 per cent, or 71.5 per cent taking the sector's debt and assets as a whole. Ofwat says gearing above 70 per cent is above the level that is consistent with maintaining long term financial resilience; 8 companies were above it, led by Thames Water at 84.5 per cent on £17.7bn of net debt. Thames, Southern and South East are in the most serious of Ofwat's monitoring categories.

Net debt of the 16 regulated water companies excluding Tideway, £bn, 31 March each year. Source: Ofwat Monitoring financial resilience data workbooks (each year from the latest workbook that reports it).

Asset value is Ofwat’s regulatory capital value. Source: Ofwat Monitoring financial resilience 2024-25.

What they pay out

£4.8bn in dividends over five years. In 2024-25, Ofwat says nine companies declared none

The regulated companies declared £645m in dividends for 2024-25, down from £1.0bn the year before and a recent high of £1.4bn in 2022-23. Ofwat reports that nine companies did not declare a dividend for 2024-25 and that Thames, Southern and South East are in cash lock up under their licences and cannot pay dividends without its consent. The two listed groups paid the most: United Utilities £197m and Severn Trent £192m. A dividend from the regulated company is not always the same as money reaching the ultimate owners, since holding companies above it may also carry debt.

Dividends declared by the regulated companies (appointee level), £m, by year. Source: Ofwat Monitoring financial resilience data workbooks.

What households pay

£639 on average this year, after a 26 per cent rise the year before

Water UK, the industry body, puts the average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales at £639 for 2026-27, up £33 or 5.4 per cent, after a rise of £123 or 26 per cent the year before from £480. Southern's customers pay the most of the water and sewerage companies and Northumbrian's the least. The rises follow Ofwat's 2024 price review, which allowed £104bn of spending from 2025 to 2030 and a rise in indicative bills of £157 over the five years before inflation. Over the longer run, Water UK's series, based on Ofwat data, shows the average bill in November 2024 prices at £379 in 1990-91, peaking at £573 in 2009-10 and back to £480 in 2024-25 before the latest rises.

Average household bill for water and sewerage, £, 2026-27, as forecast by Water UK (January 2026). Water only companies are not shown because their customers also pay a separate sewerage company.

The largest company

Thames Water: 84.5 per cent geared and drawing on a £3bn creditor facility

Thames Water serves 16 million customers and carries £17.7bn of net debt, the most of any company. Ofwat has it in its Turnaround Oversight Regime and its lowest credit rating is Caa3. On 29 September 2026 the company said it had drawn £2.48bn of a £3bn super senior facility from its creditors and was seeking their consent to draw a further £170m in October while it works towards what it calls a market led solution. A consortium of its creditors, London and Valley Water, has made a non binding recapitalisation proposal. On 18 September the Commons Environment Committee urged the Government to reject it and either put the company into special administration or legislate to take control of its finances. As of 30 September 2026 it is not in special administration.

Publicly owned water in the UK

Scotland and Northern Ireland already own their water. Neither pays dividends

Scottish Water is a public corporation accountable to Scottish Ministers. It pays no dividends, borrows from the Scottish Government, whose loans totalled £5.0bn at 31 March 2026, and invested a record £1.13bn in 2025/26. Its average household charge for 2026-27 is £532, collected with council tax and varying by band. NI Water is a government owned company whose sole shareholder is the Department for Infrastructure. Households in Northern Ireland pay no direct water charge: the department paid a subsidy of £424.1m in 2024/25 instead, and NI Water says it depends on government subsidy for 73 per cent of its revenue. In Wales, Welsh Water is owned by Glas Cymru, which has no shareholders and reinvests its surpluses. These are different models, not a controlled comparison: the costs of supply, the investment backlog and what counts as the bill all differ.

Questions this raises

What the figures do not settle