Case Study: Thames Water wins public support for nationalization with Prolific

Thames Water poll finds 73% back nationalization with Prolific

The customer Thames Water, a major UK utility company, faced a critical challenge as it neared insolvency, requiring the government to decide on its future. The vendor Prolific was engaged to conduct a survey to understand public opinion on the four potential resolution options: a creditor-led rescue, temporary public control, nationalization with full creditor repayment, or nationalization with reduced creditor repayment.

Prolific implemented a solution by surveying 1,500 UK adults, using an experimental design where respondents were randomly shown one of the four policy options. The results clearly showed that nationalization without full creditor repayment was the most popular option, with 73% public support, and was also the approach most likely to improve favorability towards the governing Labour party. This data provided a clear, measurable impact by quantifying public sentiment and political implications, equipping decision-makers with robust evidence directly from Prolific's research.

Thames Water