At the Green Party conference in Brighton, deputy leader Rachel Millward said a Green government would take Thames Water and South East Water into public ownership before Christmas, with no compensation for shareholders or creditors, whom she described as owners of insolvent firms. She dismissed Prime Minister Andy Burnham's 10-year plan to tighten control of the water sector as too gentle, citing sewage pollution, debts of billions of pounds and supply failures in her home county of Sussex. The pledge sharpens the Greens' challenge to Labour from the left, as the party debates how hard to press Labour without helping the right-wing Reform UK.