End foreign ownership of utilities, says Reform UK

The Reform UK party is calling for an end to foreign ownership of critical national infrastructure.

Under the proposal, set out by leader Richard Tice, companies supplying and distributing energy and water would continue to be run by private firms.

But 50% would be owned by the government and 50% by "British pension funds", added Mr Tice.

Reform UK is currently polling at about 6%, a similar level to the Greens and the Liberal Democrats.

At a press conference in Hartlepool, where he is planning to stand at the next general election, Mr Tice said no other country had allowed so much of its infrastructure to be in foreign hands.

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Estimates vary as to how much of the UK's utilities industry has been taken over by overseas investment firms since privatisation.

Reform UK - the new name for the Brexit Party - says its research shows 87% of energy and water companies in England and Wales are owned by overseas firms or governments.

Last year The Guardian estimated 70% of the English water industry is in foreign ownership.

UK taxpayers were being "ripped off" by the current system said Mr Tice, adding: "We will take back control for British people, that was the whole point of Brexit."

British owned

Foreign takeovers of British companies can be blocked on national security grounds. The UK government blocked the sale of Newport Wafer Fab to a Chinese-owned company to using the National Security and Investment Act

Labour have unveiled plans to launch a tax-payer owned energy company modelled on France's EDF.

Great British Energy would be set up with public money but would be independently operated and any profits would be reinvested, Labour said.

The Green Party have proposed permanently nationalising the big five UK energy suppliers. They say this would cost £2.85bn and would allow them to return the price cap to where it was last autumn and keep it at that level for a year

Reform UK, which currently has no MPs, plans to field candidates in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales at the next election, which must take place by January 2025.

Mr Tice, who took over as leader of Reform from Nigel Farage, said both the Conservatives and Labour had run out of ideas to fix "broken Britain".