Open petition: Cap the operating profit margins of privatised monopoly utility companies

Created by Monty Montgomery
Closes on 29 April 2027

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.

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