Labour MP Andrew Pakes has called for a debate about the future ownership of Britain’s water industry as increasingly hot and dry weather puts growing pressure on farmers, food production and water supplies.
Writing in his latest Westminster Life column for the Peterborough Telegraph, the Peterborough MP warned that changing weather patterns are already affecting agriculture and argued that the country needs to become more resilient to longer, drier summers and wetter winters.
Pakes visited Park Farm in Thorney, where farmers told him about the increasingly difficult conditions facing the agricultural sector.
He said two summers after his first visit, the difference in conditions was striking, with harvests starting earlier and farmers facing increasingly dry conditions.
“Farmers across the country are facing one of the toughest harvests in years,” Pakes wrote, pointing to an exceptionally dry start to the year and repeated heatwaves.
He argued that the changing climate should be treated as a food security issue as well as an environmental challenge.
Pakes said he had been pressing ministers for greater urgency in preparing the country for longer, drier summers and wetter winters, including investment in water storage.
“The truth is we don’t have too little water in this country; we simply don’t capture and store enough of it to use in dry periods,” he wrote.
The Labour MP pointed to the proposed Fens Reservoir as an example of the infrastructure needed to improve resilience. Once completed, the reservoir is expected to supply around a quarter of a million homes.
Pakes argued that planning and construction needed to move more quickly so that farmers could also benefit from storing water during periods of heavy rainfall for use during dry conditions.
He also used his column to raise the wider question of ownership of the water industry, criticising the record of privatisation.
“Privatisation has been a disaster: higher bills, more sewage in our rivers, and not nearly enough investment,” he wrote.
Pakes said shareholders and water company bosses had benefited while customers and the environment had paid the price.
While stopping short of advocating simply returning the industry to the old model of state control, he backed exploring mutual or not-for-profit alternatives.
“What I do support is the mutualisation of the water sector,” he said, arguing for failing water companies to be turned into not-for-profit mutuals which “answer to customers and reinvest every penny rather than ripping us off”.
Promoting the column on X, Pakes said he had written about “the challenges of a changing climate and how the heatwave gripping Britain is reshaping how we grow and produce our food”.
He added that the situation demonstrated “why we need to talk about public ownership of our water”.
Pakes also highlighted the pressure extreme weather is putting on emergency services, praising firefighters responding to fires in and around Peterborough and calling for continued government action to prepare communities, farmers and public services for a changing climate.
“Peterborough’s farmers, firefighters and residents deserve a government that plans for the climate we actually have, not the one we are used to,” he concluded.
