Public Services Belong in Public Hands – Grahame Morris MP

We all believe in fairness and opportunity. But too often, when public services are left in private hands, both disappear. Public ownership is not about ideology, but about ensuring essential services work for everyone, with the public interest prioritised over private profit.

 

For decades, we were told privatisation would mean lower bills, better services and innovation. The promise was that markets would serve the public good. Yet in vital services such as water, rail, and energy, what matters is efficiency and reliability, and privatisation has failed to deliver either. These are natural monopolies: one water pipe, one rail track, one energy grid, and when things go wrong, the public pays while shareholders profit.

 

Nowhere is this clearer than with water.

 

When our water was privatised in the late 1980s, the system was debt-free. Three decades later, companies owe more than £60 billion, while £78 billion has been siphoned off in shareholder dividends. That money has not gone into upgrading infrastructure or lowering bills. Meanwhile, raw sewage is discharged into rivers and seas, damaging the environment, blocking communities’ access to waterways, and leaving customers with rising bills.

 

Ministers warn that returning water to public hands would cost taxpayers billions. In reality, taxpayers are already footing the bill, through higher charges, environmental damage, and the looming risk of bailouts for debt-laden companies. Privatisation has left us paying more for less, with no ability to switch supplier and no power to hold companies to account.

 

The story of rail is just as familiar. The franchising model collapsed under its own contradictions. Operators paid out hundreds of millions in dividends while relying on subsidies to stay afloat. Passengers endured overcrowding, delays, cancellations, and some of the highest fares in Europe. The absurdity was clear: foreign governments could run services and funnel profits back home, while the only state barred from running rail was our own.

 

Even ministers were forced to admit the model had failed. The creation of Great British Railways, and returning rail to public ownership, is a step towards reinvesting revenue in services instead of distributing it to shareholders. For the first time in a generation, we can prioritise the public interest: decarbonising the network, investing in new rolling stock, and improving services for passengers.

 

The government should go further. Leasing arrangements with private rolling stock companies (ROSCOs) should also end, especially as the network is modernised. New stock should be publicly financed and owned, delivering long-term savings. We can also add value to the wider economy, if orders for new rolling stock are placed with UK rail manufacturers, safeguarding jobs and strengthening supply chains.

 

The creation of Great British Energy is another step in the right direction. But we should pull the plug on all the energy profiteers and take complete control of this essential element of our infrastructure. As well as alleviating the cost-of-living crisis, publicly owned energy is part of the solution to the climate crisis. But we must ensure a just transition for workers to develop and transfer their skills from fossil-fuel to renewable sectors.

 

These examples are not isolated but reveal a pattern. Public service privatisation has led to financial mismanagement, excessive dividends and poor services, driven by short-term profit while the public carries long-term risks. Businesses are not behaving unusually; they are doing what they are designed to do – maximise shareholder returns. The failure lies with politicians who cling to privatisation despite the evidence, ignoring the costs of collapse, bailouts and environmental damage.

 

Public ownership is not ideological, it is practical, with services run in the public interest, with profits reinvested into better infrastructure, lower bills, and long-term resilience. It ensures democratic accountability, decisions made openly, not behind closed boardroom doors. And it guarantees fairness: clean water, reliable transport, and affordable energy, with political accountability for failure.  

 

The debate is often framed as high-cost nationalisation versus low-cost privatisation. But that is false. The real cost of privatisation is already being paid, through higher fares and bills, sewage-polluted rivers, wasted subsidies, and lost opportunities. Public ownership offers a way to invest sensibly, reduce waste, and plan for the future.

 

The stakes could not be higher. A delayed train does not just inconvenience commuters, it undermines local economies, education and employment. Sewage in the sea does not just ruin a swim, it harms coastal businesses dependent on tourism. Rising energy bills do not just squeeze households, they push people into poverty and damage industry. These issues touch every part of our national life and public ownership offers a practical solution.

 

We deserve better, and we can do better. Public ownership is the clearest route to fairer bills, cleaner water, reliable railways, affordable energy and a stronger economy. Some services are too important to fail and too vital to be run for profit.

 

Public services, publicly owned, are about opportunity, dignity and the public good. Bringing them back into public hands is not just right, it is practical, fair, and the only way to build a future that works for everyone.