CAN NATIONALISATION SAVE BRITAIN?

In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, Labour’s Angela Rayner was asked if her party would “nationalise sausages”. Now, with the cost-of-living crisis highlighting the urgent need for solutions, two-thirds of Tory voters are in favour of nationalising energy companies if they can’t lower bills, according to a new poll.

Overall, just 13 per cent of the public are opposed to bringing energy companies back into public ownership, polling from YouGov has revealed.

There’s certainly a clamour for nationalisation and it goes beyond the electricity firms raking in massive profits while families struggle to make ends meet. But would it solve problems in the here and now – bringing down energy bills, making trains run on time and cleaning up our rivers? And would it be a long-term solution to some of the challenges faced by our country?

We’ve looked at the case for and against nationalisation in three key industries – energy, rail and water – to find out.

ENERGY

With energy bills soaring to frankly unaffordable amounts, the conversation has inevitably shifted to nationalising energy companies.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has proposed temporary public control as a last resort if companies cannot lower prices.

The TUC, meanwhile, estimates that nationalising energy suppliers would cost £2.85 billion, around the same amount the