15-07-2025
We face nationalisation if we're not let off fines, Thames Water warns
Thames Water has warned ministers that it will have to be bailed out by the taxpayer if it is not let off the hook for over a billion pounds in fines for environmental pollution and other failures.
Britain's biggest water company has admitted that its sewage pollution incidents increased by a third last year, to 470, and said that it had been in 'crisis mode' for two years.
However, Chris Weston, its chief executive, told MPs that the company needed an exemption from the £1.4 billion in fines he expects the regulators, Ofwat and the Environment Agency, to impose for future breaches of environmental and performance rules.
Asked why Thames deserved to be a special exception, Weston argued that water regulation needed to offer a reprieve for all struggling companies. 'If we don't find a solution to it, then there is a good chance that we will go into SAR,' he said, referring to a special administration regime, a type of emergency nationalisation for companies providing essential public services.
