Cap the operating profit margins of privatised monopoly utility companies — 13 signatures. Status: open.
Introduce legislation that caps the maximum operating profit margins allowed for privatised, regional utility networks operating as legalised monopolies. This cap should be legally pegged to competitive open-market benchmarks to protect consumers from paying for inflated corporate returns.
Legalised monopolies face zero competition and can extract huge profits. For 2025/26, Anglian Water reported a 30.3% operating profit margin, while Thames Water achieved an underlying profit margin of 35.5%. In contrast, successful brands in competitive markets make far less. Tesco operates on a tight margin of less than 5%, while open-market infrastructure firms average under 3%. We believe the Government and Parliament must cap these monopoly margins to protect customers from inflated bills.
View this petition on the official UK Parliament website