One privately-owned water company left thousands of people in south-east England dry and thirsty this week. This comes amid one of Britain’s hottest-ever May heatwaves.
South East Water, which covers much of Kent, left over 8,000 people without any tap water. The company claimed that nearby reservoirs at Whitstable were at a “critical level” due to “extremely high demand”.
The company’s six-figure CEO David Hinton stepped down from his position in early May over consistent failures, shortages and outages but will remain in-post
to allow an orderly transition over the summer period.
That and, presumably, to keep earning a slice of his lucrative £457,000 salary a wee bit longer.
In late December 2025, the Tunbridge Wells MP called for the CEO of South East Water to resign over further water shortages. So it’s clearly not just the heat that’s the problem.
Tragically, at least 11 people drowned whilst attempting to cool off this week at open bodies of water. This alone demonstrates just how devastatingly unprepared Britain is for climate shocks.
Sold debt-free in 1989. Today: £72bn in debt, ~£85bn extracted in dividends (FT/Ofwat), sewage in every river.
There’s a word for borrowing against an asset to pay yourself, then walking away from the wreckage. In ex-Soviet states we called it tunneling. In the UK we call it…
— Rory Wilmer (@inkbyteltd) May 27, 2026
Water privatisation: UK’s biggest scam
Since Margaret Thatcher’s governments privatised the majority of our water infrastructure, private water companies have paid out over £85b in shareholder dividends. They’ve invested relatively fuck-all.
By fuck-all, I mean a real-terms drop on investment of £5.5b. Meanwhile, corporate asset managers have piled debt onto the companies at over £60b. (See ‘Take Back Water’ for more info.)
They’ve liquidised our once-public assets, leveraged debt onto them, then often resold at immense profits. What do we have to show for it? Only recurrent national sewage scandals and misery.
Oh, but who could forget the rage-inducing TV drama!
Labour MP Clive Lewis rightly points out that water privatisation was a complete scam with no tangible benefits to the English and Welsh public. Scottish water, like most countries, remains publicly owned.
However, the man Lewis wished to sacrifice his own seat for — before journalist intimidator Josh Simons beat him to it — Andy Burnham has ruled out renationalising water. Burnham now wants to be PM.
Labour might be complacent, but Manchester Green Party has had enough of this:
Nationalisation.
No compensation! https://t.co/IcjasM8rju
— Manchester Green Party
(@McrGreenParty) May 28, 2026
So too has Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who’s regularly made scathing remarks about the sorry state of water privatisation. It’s a clear case study for insane capitalist profiteering at great public expense.
The Green Party supports re-nationalisation of water and major energy infrastructures. Alongside, of course, a speedy and just transition to renewable energy. (Ideally without the new green resource imperialism.)
That’s what’s needed to avert more unmanageable weather events and ensuing climate collapse. And these corporate pirate water companies deserve not a penny of compensation.
BBC panel speechless as Zack Polanski nails the utter state of the water companies
Compounding crises: heatwave capitalism
The heatwaves dominated the airwaves this week as Britain sweltered in intense sunshine. Many rightly pointed out that these temperatures were obscene for May, including the Canary.
Doubtless central to these intense, shifting temperature patterns is the decades-long breakdown of normal weather due to ongoing climate collapse. This is caused largely by vast quantities of CO2 and other greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere by fossil fuel combustion.
Meanwhile, No.10 squanders precious time for action suppressing studies on climate collapse and Tony Blair — backed by oily Gulf States and AI monopolists — urges Labour to “abandon net zero.” Too woke for Blair.
Likewise funded by fossil fuel lobbyists, hardcore anti-net zero Reform UK are wildly out of touch with public opinion on this urgent matter. Can anyone really be surprised? It is well hot, after all.
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Fossil fuels are overwhelmingly consumed by the world’s wealthiest percentile. Meanwhile, the working class and especially the Global South consume a fraction of their fuel, yet suffer the worst consequences.
This disaster, combined with the hyper-capitalistic exploitation of our invaluable water supplies for corporate profits, combines to create the problems we confront today. This week shows how clearly linked they are.
Add to these problems massive energy-hungry and water-thirsty AI data centres being erected around the UK and the world and you’ve got serious crises compounding. Will politicians assure us that data centres will be first to lose their access to clean water, before humans? Yeah, right.
The only way to confront these intertwined crises of water shortages, AI and the climate breakdown is to confront their root cause. Capitalist profiteering at common people’s expense must be ended. End of.
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No 10 suppressed key intelligence report on climate collapse
Featured image via Getty Images
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