THE government is refusing to nationalise water companies after securing £88 billion in private investment from their fat cat bosses, the Commons has heard.

Decades of profiteering from Britain’s creaking water infrastructure have left parts of the country facing water rationing in the 2030s, the second reading of the government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill heard.

But responding to growing calls to nationalise the sector, water minister Emma Hardy said this would be “complex, time-consuming [and] would halt the investment needed.”