Allies Urge Burnham Not to Retreat on Water Nationalisation Pledge

Allies of Andy Burnham have urged him not to abandon his earlier pledge to bring water companies under public control, after details emerged of a plan to give mayors and other local leaders expanded oversight powers over the industry, according to The Guardian.

Mat Lawrence and Mark McVitie, who the report says helped provide an intellectual grounding for Burnham's project over the summer, both warned that granting politicians oversight of key utilities without accompanying financial control would not fulfil what had previously been promised.

The warnings come as specifics of the government's proposal begin to surface, with the plan reportedly centred on giving mayors and other local leaders greater powers to scrutinise water companies rather than taking direct ownership or financial control of the firms.

According to The Guardian, the emerging plan has raised concerns among some of Burnham's key supporters that the approach represents a scaled-back version of his earlier commitments regarding the water sector.

The Guardian reported that Lawrence and McVitie characterised oversight powers alone as insufficient compared with the public control that had been pledged.

Further details of the plan, including its full scope and timeline, were not specified in the available reporting.