Martin Wrigley

Martin Wrigley

Liberal Democrat — Newton Abbot

Speaking in the House of Commons on 14 September 2026

Debate

Water Sector: Public Ownership

Contribution

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I am delighted to speak to this petition. It is about a really important issue, particularly in my constituency of Newton Abbot where we have Dawlish Warren, which is the place where “Dirty Business”, which showed the tragic death of Heather Preen, was filmed. I met Heather’s mother Julie when she came to this House, which was truly sobering. I have the River Exe and the River Teign in my constituency. Both of them suffer. We are not dealing with water in the right way; I think that is plain to see. Quite how much hon. Members will say anything different in this debate I am not sure, but it is clear that we need to make a change. The experiment of 1989 failed. Heather died only 10 years after that, and we can see that investment was not being made. South West Water proudly says that it invests £13 billion in the system, but it pays out more than half of that in dividends. That is just wrong.

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