Thames Water nearing the cliff edge.

[JohnD]

"It would take seven years, and test the determination of Bailey and his colleagues to the extreme, but their investigation uncovered what a court heard was a tale of deliberate corporate wrongdoing and cover-up on the largest scale seen in the 25-year history of the EA.

The water company, which charges its customers to safely treat their sewage, had chosen instead to dump hundreds of millions of litres of raw effluent into protected marine environments because that was cheaper. It had been going on for years and is still the subject of an ongoing criminal inquiry by the EA."

Guardian.

 

[JohnD]

"17 May 2024, 10:15 BST
Updated 2 hours ago

Severn Trent boss defends multi-million pay packet despite sewage spills

The water firm made 60,000 sewage spills last year but insists river quality is improving.

www.bbc.co.uk

The boss of Severn Trent has defended her multi-million pound pay package despite sewage spills by the company rising by a third in 2023.
Liv Garfield was awarded £3.2m in pay, bonuses and shares last year, while over the past four years she has earned nearly £13m.
Severn Trent was responsible for more than 60,000 sewage spills last year which Ms Garfield told the BBC Today programme "doesn't make me feel good".

Perhaps three million quid will make her feel better.

 

[JohnD]

"Thames Water’s biggest shareholder writes off investment"​

"Move by Canadian pension fund is sign of escalating financial crisis at UK’s largest water supplier"

" Gill Plimmer and Josephine Cumbo in London
41 MINUTES AGO
Thames Water’s biggest shareholder has written off its investment in the utility in a sign of the escalating financial crisis at the UK’s largest water company.

A Singapore-registered subsidiary of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which holds a 31 per cent stake in Thames Water, said in accounts filed on Friday it would make “a full writedown of [its] investment and loan receivable with accrued interest”.

FT.com

Wow, who could have seen that coming?

 

[JohnD]

Times are changing at last....

"Water regulator Ofwat has placed Thames Water into a special regime that may require the UK’s largest water company to break itself up, publicly list, and reduce its debt mountain.

The watchdog said on Thursday that Thames Water had been late in delivering its business plan — which had requested a hike in customer bills of as much as 59 per cent over five years to 2030 — and even then it was “incomplete” and “didn’t even have the assurance of its own board”.

Thames Water will instead enter a “special turnaround oversight regime”, which will require a fresh business plan and tougher regulatory scrutiny of the company, with an independent monitor to sit within the utility and provide feedback on progress to Ofwat.

In the medium term Thames Water, which serves 16mn households in London and surrounding areas, may be required to limit the amount of debt it takes on, weigh a separation of the business into two or more water companies, or seek a public listing to secure additional equity, Ofwat said."

FT.com

 

[fixitflav]

Read in the parer today that water bills will have to rise, but "Ofwat will set out 'mitigation' measures to ensure the cash is not diverted to bonuses and dividends". Have they only just realised that was a risk? It should have been Ofwat's policy objective from day 1. Sheer incompetence.

 

[ajohn]

Southern Water has the largest intended charges increase 45%. Easily the highest of the lot.

Seven Trent have replaced some older piping and also the victorian feed from Wales. Also cheaper than some others. If I remember correctly increase ~19% many more similar.

 

[JohnD]

Going down the drain.



"Thames Water has had its credit rating slashed to “junk” status by S&P, putting the struggling utility in breach of its licence conditions and pushing Britain’s largest water utility closer to renationalisation.

Rating agency S&P on Wednesday said it had downgraded Thames’s safest class of debt to BB, lowering its credit rating two notches below investment grade and stripping the utility of its only remaining such rating. It had previously been rated at BBB-, the bottom investment-grade rating provided by S&P.

It also said that holders of Thames’s riskiest bonds could be completely wiped out in the case of a hypothetical default, while investors in Thames’s safest tier of bonds were expected to get 70 per cent of their money back.

“We do not believe that Thames Water will have a remedy plan to cover its liquidity needs by 1.1x for the next 12 months before the autumn of 2024,” S&P said. “In addition, the company is in breach of its current licence conditions.”

FT.com