Yesterday (Tuesday) we got rather fixated on Labour proposals to take ‘control’ of energy, although quite what that meant beyond allowing public/private partnerships for grid connections and taking a share of some projects under another ‘Great British’ logo were unclear.

Generally anything that might speed up grid connections must be a good thing, but until there are details its all rather lost in the mists of political optics.

Anyway, what we should have mentioned is that water will receive the same treatment. The forthcoming Water Bill will, if passed, remove caps on government share ownership in water firms.

Both national and EU pressures led to limits being set in the Water Act 1989, with a limit of government share ownership limited to below 3 per cent.

The Government has acknowledged that England’s water sector “relies on continued private sector investment” so we are looking at taking a joint ownership or ‘golden share’ at most.

At Thames Water talks continue to rescue the operator in a £10bn deal proposed by its creditor group, London & Valley Water, and how the announcement might affect that is unclear, but it is unlikely the Government would like to front the whole cost having already spent the proposed savings from scrapping the Triple Lock on pensions.

Another, perhaps more intriguing aspect of the new proposals is that mayors and strategic authorities should have greater “influence over companies’ priorities or mechanisms to hold them to account”. Again, it’s watch this space for details, and the anticipated ten-year plan for Britain, to be published later this year might clarify a few things.

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