Wed, 28 May 2025

Wed, 28 May 2025 Why is Thames Water in so much trouble?

Thames Water faces a record fine, mounting debts, and crumbling infrastructure. How did it get to this point?

* Thames Water has been fined a record £122.7m by Ofwat, the water regulator.
* The company has "let down its customers and failed to protect the environment", according to Ofwat.
* Thames Water has huge debts of £22.8bn and is struggling to fix leaks, stop sewage spills, and modernise outdated infrastructure.
* The fine includes a £104.5m penalty for breaches of rules connected to its sewage operations, including routine spilling of untreated waste into rivers and seas.
* An additional £18.2m was fined because of multi-million-pound payments to shareholders in 2023 and 2024, which Ofwat called "undeserved".
* Thames Water has estimated it could be fined up to £900m over the next five years for leaks and sewage spills.
* The company's debt increased sharply when it was owned by Macquarie, an Australian infrastructure bank, from 2017 to present.
* Despite its struggles, Thames Water has secured emergency funding of £3bn and is in discussions with a US investment group KKR about a cash injection of up to £5bn.
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