‘Nobody else is going to save us’: the direct action group taking on the UK’s banks, bailiffs and water firms

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Acorn, a community union, is helping people fight unfair bills, AI decision-making and housing injustices as cost-of-living crisis deepensYasmin didn’t expect to find herself…

Acorn, a community union, is helping people fight unfair bills, AI decision-making and housing injustices as cost-of-living crisis deepens

Yasmin didn’t expect to find herself sitting across a negotiating table from executives at one of Britain’s biggest water companies. But her growing frustration with her water bills had led her to launch a national campaign.

The 34-year-old single mother from Manchester had endured unexplained charges and a nine-month wait for a water meter. She went to the community union Acorn to propose a campaign that would in time force four major water companies into negotiations. United Utilities eventually apologised for its handling of her case and credited £250 to her account.

It is the latest in a series of direct actions by Acorn targeting the cost-of-living crisis, from challenging councils over bailiffs to confronting banks over housing policies. Rather than wait for government intervention, members say they are taking matters into their own hands and forcing powerful institutions to negotiate directly with them.

“Joining the union has given me so much confidence,” Yasmin said. “Because nobody else is going to save us. We can only save ourselves, right? And save each other.”

Founded in Bristol in 2014, Acorn began by organising renters against rogue landlords and evictions, before expanding into wider cost-of-living campaigns. Its members propose, debate and vote on campaigns at branch level, with issues of wider significance referred to regional or national committees made up of elected members. National campaigns can also be proposed at conferences and put to a membership vote.

On 20 August, Acorn staged nine protests as part of its national Dignity Not Debt campaign, forcing Yorkshire Water, Severn Trent, United Utilities and Welsh Water into negotiations and securing concessions.

Yorkshire Water agreed to stop sending bailiffs after vulnerable customers, while Welsh Water pledged not to use artificial intelligence to make…

United…

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