Campaign groups call for Thames Water to be nationalised amid rescue plan
The water supplier is set to run out of cash by the end of March
Last updated 4th Feb 2025
Campaign groups are calling for Britain’s biggest water supplier to come under public ownership whilst the company is seeking a £3bn emergency rescue plan.
Thames Water is set to run out of cash by the end of next month and risks entering special administration if a judge does not approve its plans to inject up to ÂŁ3 billion to keep it afloat.
"Like vultures"
The scheme, known as the "company plan" is being considered over a four-day hearing in London.
However, campaign group, We Own It, claims it “would require around £250 a year from every household to pay it off”.
Matthew Topham, lead campaigner for the group, said: "Thames Water is the poster child for failed privatisation.
"The companies in crisis because its business model relies on piling up debt and raising bills so they can pay huge bonuses and dividends. All the while pumping raw sewage into our waterways.
"Basically, they have now run out of other people's money to fill their pockets with.
"Like vultures, Thames Water creditors are picking over the firm's carcass for any last scraps of profit they can make from households who have no choice but to use their firm.
"This £3 billion restructuring plan at 10% interest is unaffordable, it brings their total debt to £20 billion and would require around £250 a year from every household to pay it off.”
He added: " That's a whopping amount of money to be leaving households, leaving our pockets, and not being spent on cleaning up rivers and seas.”
Thames Water replied to the claim saying, “This is an untrue and misleading claim that risks needlessly worrying our customers.
“This plan will not lead to any increases in customer bills. Ofwat has already determined the cost of bills for the next five years.”
"Thames Water must be put into special administration"
Jo Robb, a campaigner at the Henley Mermaids anti-sewage group, said: "Thames Water's creditors are asking the court to support an expensive bailout loan and the company's captive customers are expected to foot the bill.
"The court is being asked to endorse what is, in essence, daylight robbery and the Government is sitting on its hands.
She added: "It's time for the Government to step in and put the people, not foreign creditors, first. Thames Water must be put into special administration and returned to permanent public ownership.
"Special administration must not be used as a mechanism for wiping out Thames Water's debt only for it to be returned to the private sector. 30 years on, the Government must recognise what the public has known all along, that water privatisation has been an abject failure and a scam.
"Now is our chance to reverse course, to put Thames Water's customers first and bring the company back into public ownership, to be managed for people and nature, not private profit."
Charlie Maynard, the MP for Witney in Oxfordshire, is also opposing the plans in court, claiming the company should be put into administration as the company plan is "a short-term fix at the expense of the company, Thames Water customers and UK taxpayers".
The hearing before Mr Justice Leech is due to conclude on Thursday, with a judgment expected in writing at a later date.