New report beautifully visualises the state of ‘Rip-Off Britain’

A new report from Common Wealth has beautifully visualised how privatisation turned our nation into “Rip-Off Britain”. Complete with a ‘Visual Story’ and ‘Data Dashboard’, the site takes you on a journey through every grubby scam that capitalists have inflicted on us. Somehow, they’ve also managed to make the journey through this information beautiful:

If you want to unwind the web of private owners and interests behind our essential services, explore our new project at the link below. 🔗👇https://t.co/PscWIxUGW6

— Common Wealth (@Cmmonwealth) September 17, 2025

We recommend you click this link to see the Visual Story yourself. In this article, we’re going to provide some of the key findings and responses to the report.

“Who Owns Britain?”

The Visual Story shows all the ways private companies are rinsing us from “cradle to grave”:

The Data Dashboard covers utilities, transport, care, land, mail, and Britain at large. In the ‘Private Island’ section, Common Wealth highlight the following costs which successive governments have lumbered us with:

• £2bn: the extra interest we pay each year because of privatisation.
• 9% of the 2023 energy bill was paid out to shareholders and lenders through dividends and interest payments.
• £1.5m: the average director pay for privatised companies in 2024 — that’s 46 times the median salary.

In the same section, Common Wealth write:

The privateers promised us a miracle. They gave us Rip-Off Britain.

Our country is in decline because of their radical experiment. People can feel it: they pay more for essentials and struggle to afford a decent life.

Too often the basics don’t seem to work anymore. No wonder we feel frustrated. We have lost control of our essential services and infrastructure. Shareholders were paid hundreds of billions out of our bills as critical investment went neglected.

If the public loses, who benefits from private island? The winners are the new owners of what was once our common wealth: billionaire investors, foreign governments, international asset managers and pension funds, and private equity giants.

In 2024, Britain voted the Tories out following years of scandals, including constant accusations of dodgy contracts and cronyism during the Covid pandemic. Since Labour took charge, they’ve generated very similar headlines to the Tories.

The following are just some of the stories we’ve run in the past year:

• Rachel Reeves already reeks of cronyism at the Treasury.
• ‘Corrupt’ Starmer pleads incompetence over ‘cronyism’ allegations. Of course he does.
• The backlash to Labour’s crony Carbon Capture and Storage plans just went up a gear.
• Cronyism and NHS privatisation: just another day in the House of Lords.
• Rachel Reeves just gave a government job to a Thames Water crony.

This is what Labour’s approval ratings look like after a year of this:

🚨 NEW | Labour approval hits record low (-61)

✅ Approve – 11% (-1)
❌ Disapprove – 72% (+3)

Via @YouGov, 15 Sep (+/- vs 8 Sep) pic.twitter.com/1IfMsrOdjR

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) September 16, 2025

Common Wealth close out the Private Island section with this:

Enough. We deserve better than this. We deserve real control.

Sticking plasters on a broken model won’t work. A better country — one where everyone has security and hope — means remaking how we own and run our essential services and infrastructure: by and for the public.

This isn’t nostalgia for 1945. This is how we renew Britain in 2025. It’s time to end the rip-off.

Common Wealth

Common Wealth highlighted several instances of people supporting their new study:

Absolutely vital research from @Cmmonwealth. We simply can’t afford privatised services or public-private partnerships anymore. It has already cost us hundreds of billions of £.

We need to democratise the economy. https://t.co/CCvK1QLXNb

— Abundance (@abundance_org) September 17, 2025

“[Common Wealth’s] report concludes that this ‘privatisation premium’ has average £250 per household, per year, since 2010 alone.”

Defenders of privatisation are clinging to an out-of-date ideology which is failing the country.pic.twitter.com/tPkYeH4ESP

— Common Wealth (@Cmmonwealth) September 17, 2025

193 BILLION POUNDS.

That’s how much has been paid in dividends by essential utility companies in the past 35 years.

Including nearly £90bn by water companies.

That money doesn’t come from thin air. It comes from the bill payer.

New @Cmmonwealth analysis out now. pic.twitter.com/zmHbj8EDc3

— Compass (@CompassOffice) September 17, 2025

‘The privateers promised a miracle: competition, lower bills & better services.

Instead we got inefficient monopolies, rising costs & worsening outcomes as ordinary people struggle to afford essentials

The dream of privatisation has turned into the nightmare of Rip-Off Britain’ https://t.co/dlKievVTV3

— Paul Nowak (@nowak_paul) September 17, 2025

.@commonwealth have done some brilliant work here and it deserves the widest possible audience. We have collectively been leeched off for years by privatisation. https://t.co/SK83iEWxyk

— James Meadway (@meadwaj) September 17, 2025

The more people understand we’re getting ripped off, the better.

We’re past the point where anyone can pretend this privatisation shit works; now we need to stop the wealthy layabouts at the top from getting rich off the services that should be enriching us all.

Featured image via Common Wealth / Independent