Press Release
24 September 2026For immediate release
1 September 2026
LIQUID GOLD BLACK WATER launches ahead of Parliamentary debate on the future of Britain’s water industry.
Author Tony Brophy publishes a hard-hitting new book arguing that England’s privatised water model has failed rivers, customers and public trust.
Tony Brophy today announces the launch of LIQUID GOLD BLACK WATER, a new book examining the history, privatisation and present crisis of the water industry in England, with particular focus on Thames Water and the wider case for structural reform.
The book is published ahead of the Westminster Hall debate scheduled for 14 September 2026 on the petition calling for a referendum on bringing the water industry into public ownership. The official Parliament petition page confirms that Parliament will debate the petition on that date.
Drawing on Brophy’s direct experience of working with Thames Water through Thamesgro, sewage-sludge recycling, Stockley Park, local-authority contracting and the later breakdown of that relationship, LIQUID GOLD BLACK WATER argues that water should be treated as public-health infrastructure, not merely as a regulated financial asset.
Brophy says; –
“Water is not just another industry. It is public health, ecology, land management and national infrastructure. The public pays the bills, the rivers carry the evidence, and Parliament now has to decide whether the old privatised model can credibly survive.”
The book traces the story from London’s historic sewage crisis and Victorian sanitary engineering through the 1989 water privatisation, the financialisation of Thames Water, sewage pollution, public anger, campaign pressure and the growing call for a new model of public control, transparent finance and long-term stewardship.
LIQUID GOLD BLACK WATER calls for; –
- a public-purpose duty for all water institutions;
- open books, open asset maps and honest reporting of infrastructure condition;
- catchment-based water governance;
- stronger legal accountability for pollution and under-maintenance;
- clean-water finance that funds rivers and infrastructure, not bailouts for failed financial engineering;
- a serious national debate on ownership, control and democratic accountability.
Brophy adds; –
“The Victorians built the sewers because the smell reached Parliament. We should not need the smell to reach Parliament again before the country acts. The evidence is already in the rivers, on the beaches, in the accounts and in the public anger.”
The Parliamentary debate follows growing public and political concern over sewage pollution, water-company debt, executive pay and bonuses, rising bills and the future ownership of essential utilities. The petition calls for a national referendum on whether the water industry should be returned to public ownership.
Sir Tim Smit KBE says; –
“The laissez-faire attitude to the policing and stewardship of our water is, in my view, treasonous. It is not a misdemeanour or a business crime, it is a knowing assault on the future. There are many who should hang their heads in shame at the certainty that their descendants will feel that an indelible stain has been visited upon them. This is a timely and very readable work of righteous anger that should grace the bedside table of all citizens who care.”
LIQUID GOLD BLACK WATER is available from 1 September 2026.
Media enquiries:
Tony Brophy
Email: brophy.ma@gmail.com
