The Government Is Removing the Cap on Owning Water Company Shares. Nothing on Your Bill Changes Yet

The Prime Minister announced on Tuesday 29 September 2026 that the government’s strengthened Water Bill will remove the current limits on government ownership of shares in the major water and sewerage companies in England. The announcement was published on gov.uk by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

The limits being removed are in the Water Act 1989, the Act that privatised the industry. They cap how much of each company the government may own, along with an associated restriction on the government acquiring shares in those companies. In the announcement’s words, the limits “vary between 1-3%, the exact limit varies by company and is below 3% in each case”.

What the change is, and what it is not

Removing a cap is not the same as using the room it leaves. The announcement does not say the government will buy shares in any company, name a company it intends to take a stake in, or put a figure on any purchase. What it describes is room to act later: the change “gives the Government flexibility to consider a wide range of possible future interventions, including on ownership models, and provide support where it is needed”.

It is also explicit that private money stays in the picture: “securing the long-term future of England’s water sector relies on continued private sector investment. Removing the cap does not change that.” Any reform, it says, will be delivered “within the fiscal rules”.

The stated reason is that the cap is “a historic restriction on government share ownership, which does not exist in other sectors”, and that without it the government “can act where water companies let down customers and the environment”.

Who it covers

The announcement says: “The change will apply in England.” It refers throughout to the major water and sewerage companies. It does not mention the smaller water-only companies, which supply drinking water but not sewerage, and it does not say whether the change reaches them.

England is the only nation the announcement names, and it says nothing about Wales. Water in Scotland and Northern Ireland was never privatised and remains publicly owned, which is set out on the privatisation page.

When

The announcement gives no date, either for the Bill or for when the change would take effect. Removing a limit set in an Act of Parliament needs legislation, and the announcement ties it to “a strengthened Water Bill”. Further detail, it says, “will be set out in the 10-year plan for Britain, to be published later this year”.

Local leaders

A second, smaller commitment sits in the same announcement. The Prime Minister “recognised that mayors and strategic authorities currently have far too little influence over companies’ priorities or mechanisms to hold them to account”, and new powers for local leaders “will be developed as part of the Government’s reforms of the water sector”. What those powers are is not stated.

What it means at home

For now, nothing changes for a household. The announcement does not alter any bill or tariff, does not change who supplies a home, and does not change who regulates the company or where a complaint goes. Its stated aims include “fairer bills”, but it sets out no mechanism by which a bill would change, and no figure.

A household still cannot switch water company, and the company named on the bill is still the one answerable for the service. Who owns that company today, and how to follow the ownership chain on the public register, is on the check it yourself page.

Whether water should be in public or private hands is a political question, and Water Pages takes no position on it. What changes for a household will depend on legislation and a plan that have not yet been published.

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Read at source 30 September 2026 and re-checked against it 4 October 2026: the press release “Pathway to stronger public control of the water industry revealed”, published on gov.uk by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs on 29 September 2026. Every figure and quotation above is taken from it. The release links no policy paper, consultation or draft Bill. Water Pages is an independent information service, not a government body or a water company.