Lib Dem leader visits Berkshire to claim Thames Water is a 'sinking ship'

Lib Dems say Thames Water is ‘a sinking ship’ during party leader Sir Ed Davey’s latest rafting stunt at a country park in Berkshire.

Sir Ed visited the Dinton Pastures Country Park between Reading and Wokingham to send the message that the water company is failing.

This time, he did not fall in the water like he did while paddleboarding at Lake Windermere in May last year.

Sir Ed teamed up with Clive Jones, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham and councillor Katrin Harding (Lib Dems, Thames), Wokingham Borough Council’s executive for the environment and climate emergency, to make a raft.

They then embarked onto the Black Swan Lake in a brief competition with party aides on another raft.

Sir Ed said: “Mr Jones has been really campaigning hard on sewage issues and trying to get Thames Water to treat people better.

“We wanted to highlight the water issue, that is why we were building the raft, but it enables me to make my serious message.

“Thames Water are seeking permission to increase their bills even more, under inflation busting rises that’s we’ve seen, that is wrong, they have performed so badly on things like sewage and on failing to fix the pipes and the leaks, it’s really time that people were tougher on Thames Water, Clive has been leading the way along with the Lib Dem parliamentary team, and we think it’s time to pull the plug on Thames Water and put them under administration.”

Mr Jones added: “Today was to highlight that Thames Water is a sinking ship. That’s exactly what they are.

“Financially, they are on their way to going bust.

“We’re already paying a third of our bills, which is going to the cost of servicing the debt; the company should not have got to that situation.

“It needs to be restructured so we have a public interest company.”

A spokesperson for Thames Water answered points made during the visit.

They said: “Investing in our services and providing support to customers with their bills is incredibly important to us.

“For us to continue to deliver billions of litres of clean water and take wastewater away from millions of homes, it’s vital that we invest in our network and infrastructure over the next five years.

“We offer comprehensive support for customers struggling to pay their bill, rated among the best in the sector. We’re already helping around 450,000 customers pay their bills, and by 2030, one in ten households will be in receipt of support, including a discount of 50 per cent on their bill.

“We would encourage any customer who is concerned about their ability to pay to reach out to us so we can assess the right package of support for their circumstances.”

The spokesperson then argued that putting the company into administration would not fix the company’s problems, and would instead lead to rising costs and disrupt the improvements it wants to make.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.