Privatisation not the problem for England’s water, says author of review

Architect of government's water plan says nationalisation might not fix everything and the current system can work

The privatisation of water in England is not the reason for its failings, the architect of the government's water plan has said, as he warned there was no one simple solution" such as nationalisation.

Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former Bank of England deputy governor who was involved in reforming banking regulation after the 2008 financial crisis, was enlisted by the Labour government to write a report on the water industry. He was tasked with addressing problems such as the sewage scandal, frequent tap water outages and lack of preparedness for drought.