Thames Water

My Liberal Democrat Parliamentary colleagues and I have been warning the Government for months that Thames Water is no longer fit to operate under its current structure. Indeed, it was my colleague, Charlie Maynard MP, who has led the legal challenges in court which exposed many of the inadequacies of the company. It has been allowed to flounder while customers are burdened with increasing interest payments on billions of pounds of debt. Meanwhile, our rivers and lakes continue to suffer from unacceptable levels of pollution.

Special Administration is now the only viable option. It would allow Thames Water’s debt to be written down, freeing up resources to invest in cleaning up our environment and restoring public trust. However, this must be accompanied by broader reform. We need the new, improved regulator which prioritises service over profit. The Government policy to scrap OFWAT and replace it with a more powerful regulator is a campaign success for the Liberal Democrats.

As you also highlight, over £85 billion has been extracted from the sector, while infrastructure continues to fail and pollution worsens. It’s clear that the current model is broken. We must  ensure that future water services are run in the public interest. If the economic case for public ownership or nationalisation stacks up, I would support it, and if not, I’d recommend changing governance to a public benefit society.