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BBC News
15-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Thames Water will take decade to turn around, says boss
Thames Water will "take at least a decade to turn around", its boss has said, as the struggling company posted huge annual reported a loss of £1.65bn for the year to March, in which its debt pile climbed to £ UK's largest water and waste company claimed "significant rainfall and high groundwater levels" led to "pollutions" increasing by more than a third, but said it had tried to address "many of the underlying causes of our poor performance".The results come as bosses are set to be quizzed by MPs later, with the company's future still uncertain since fears it could collapse first emerged two years ago. Chris Weston, chief executive of Thames Water, said the company had made "good progress" on its performance, "despite the ongoing challenging financial situation".Thames serves about a quarter of the UK's population, mostly across London and parts of southern England, and employs 8,000 firm continues to face heavy criticism over its performance in recent years, following a series of sewage discharges and dire state of the company finances emerged in June 2023, but Thames managed to secure a £3bn rescue loan earlier this year to stave off collapse.
BBC News
20-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Thames Water nationalisation prep 'stepped up', says government
The government has "stepped up" preparations for the potential temporary nationalisation of Thames Water, the environment secretary has in Parliament on Thursday, Steve Reed said the government "stand ready for all eventualities" - including placing the embattled water company under its control "if that were to become necessary".Earlier this month, Thames Water faced a major blow in its attempt to secure its future after US private equity giant KKR pulled out of a £4bn rescue deal for the Dubois, from the water company, said it was "working hard to get the company on a much firmer financial footing". Answering a question from the Labour MP for Monmouthshire, Catherine Fookes, Reed said Thames Water "remains financially stable" and that the government had "stepped up" its preparations for potential nationalisation."The government will always act in the national interest on these issues," he added. 'Business as usual' Thames Water serves about a quarter of the UK's population, mostly across parts of southern England and London, and employs 8,000 it has huge debts and is struggling to fix leaks, stop sewage spills, and modernise outdated May, the water company's chief told MPs that its survival depended on the industry regulator Ofwat being lenient over fines and penalties for its environmental BBC understands that KKR pulled out of its deal to invest in the firm in part due to the political and regulatory risk surrounding the speaking on Thursday, Mr Reed said: "Thames Water must meet its statutory and regulatory obligations to its customers and to the environment—it is only right that the company is subject to the same consequences as any other water company."When asked about the firm being placed into government-supervised administration, Ms Dubois said: "We're getting on with the business of serving customers with water and treating their sewage, so it's business as usual for us.""We're working hard to get the company on a much firmer financial footing and we're just getting on with the day job," she a statement, Thames Water added: "Our focus remains on a holistic and fundamental recapitalisation, delivering a market-led solution which includes targeting investment grade credit ratings."Regardless of who owns Thames Water, its water services will continue as Water is effectively owned by its lenders and a consortium of them has prepared a plan to raise equity which sources say is ready to go and fully funded. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Why does Nigel Farage get to play British politics on easy mode?
In today's rundown, discontented Britain, politics is supposed to be hard. Deep national problems need to be solved, but voters are impatient and often contemptuous of politicians. Past mistakes are rarely forgiven. Promises are treated with scepticism. The costs of policies are scrutinised and often resented. Attempts to set out priorities, such as the government's spending review this week, face endless questioning. Disagreements inside political parties, meanwhile, are seen as signs of weakness and division. MPs with outside interests are seen as greedy and uncommitted. As for the minority who survive these pressures long enough to have a significant career – the electorate usually grows bored with them. Few retain its interest beyond a dozen or so years. Nigel Farage first became an elected politician in 1999. Since then, disillusionment with his profession has intensified to probably unprecedented levels. Yet few, if any, of the unforgiving rules of British politics seem to apply to him, or to his latest vehicle, Reform UK. They appear to be playing politics on easy mode. His Commons appearances are infrequent, his extracurricular activities prolific, his party's internal culture chaotic and its plans to 'fix' Britain largely theoretical and uncosted. His one concrete policy achievement is Brexit, now widely considered disastrous or disappointing. In a country often said to have had enough of metropolitan privilege, he is a wealthy, privately educated southern Englishman who used to work in the City of London. In a country supposedly sick of political rancour, he consistently falls out with colleagues. In a country that supposedly wants politicians to be more modest and better at apologies, his public manner is self-satisfied and unrepentant. Yet since winning only five seats at last year's election, Reform UK has increasingly dominated the political conversation. Farage's constant speeches and press conferences, complete with self-congratulatory smiles and jokes, receive huge coverage for a tiny Westminster party. Few Labour or Tory policies feel designed without actual or potential Reform voters in mind. And as the traditional main parties have fallen back in the polls, Reform has overtaken them. Winning power has become a possibility. No new British party has ever done this. Even Labour, with the trade union movement behind it, took a quarter of a century from its foundation to reach government. Why is Reform seemingly finding politics so easy? The usual way of explaining its rise is through the troubled state of the country, the main parties' inadequacies and Farage's talent for exploiting political and social crises. These have all played a big part, but so have less examined factors. The design of our political system is one of them. Supposedly hostile to new parties, it can, in fact, be too hospitable to them if their popularity is not yet reflected in parliament, and they can, therefore, avoid taking on tricky Commons roles. Because Reform is not the official opposition, Farage doesn't have to ask regular prime minister's questions, and doesn't have to build a coherent critique of the government – and thus also expose himself to its potentially damaging counterattacks. While Kemi Badenoch struggles to rubbish Keir Starmer's government, and Starmer rubbishes past Tory governments in reply, Farage can sit back, seemingly above the Westminster squabbles many voters dislike. An MP for just a year, he barely has a Commons or constituency record that opponents can attack. He and Reform can act as the opposition in an amorphous and potent rather than narrowly parliamentary sense: as a repository for the hopes and fantasies of a wide range of voters that the country can be rescued – 'reformed' – by a radically different government. Something a little like this has happened before, with the creation and brief ascendancy of the Social Democratic party (SDP) in the early 1980s. Allied with the Liberals, the SDP won byelections and surged ahead of Labour and the Tories in the polls. Some predicted the SDP would replace Labour, as some predict Reform will replace the Tories now. Yet unlike Reform, the SDP had been founded by familiar Commons figures, all former Labour ministers, and this connection to the mainstream meant that its fresh, insurgent feel could not be sustained. Its popularity faded. Less associated with Westminster, Reform may prove harder for the established parties to suppress or co-opt. Farage also enjoys an advantage not available to the SDP: strong rightwing media support. In order to get the politics it wants, or to obstruct the politics it doesn't want, this historically dominant part of the media almost always backs a rightwing party. With the Tories' deep unpopularity, poor current leadership and terrible recent record in government, Reform seems a better prospect. While it presents itself as a revolt against the established order, in reality its anti-immigration and anti-diversity policies seek to protect or restore traditional social structures. It's an easy cause for conservative journalists to support. What might make Reform's life harder? Possibly, having to run the councils it won in May's local elections, during a period of tight public spending. Yet given Reform's ability to evade responsibility, it's also possible that problems at its councils will be blamed on the government instead. Farage may finally start to age, politically speaking, as he becomes more of a Westminster fixture, and also engages with – or ignores – the problems of his deprived constituency, Clacton in Essex. His 21 years as a member of the European parliament to an extent preserved his novelty – like his movement's metamorphosis from the UK Independence party to the Brexit party to Reform UK – since few Britons followed its proceedings. Now, as a purely domestic politician, he gets more constant publicity. Although he seems to relish it, it could bring overexposure. In the most recent polls, Reform's popularity had stopped rising. But waiting for him and his party to lose their novelty is a risky and passive strategy for Reform's opponents, with the next election at most four years away. Anxious Labour activists and election strategists increasingly talk about promoting a 'stop Reform' message. Yet with Labour having weakened its anti-Reform credentials by sometimes echoing its language and policies, that message might only resonate with enough voters if Labour forms some kind of electoral alliance with more consistently anti-Reform forces: the Greens and Liberal Democrats, perhaps even Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National party and leftwing independents. That would be uncharted territory for the tribal Labour party. But with Reform enjoying an ascendancy that our political and electoral systems never anticipated, we are in uncharted territory already. Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Curlew chicks hatch in Kent conservation project
A Kent nature reserve is playing a key role in efforts to revive southern England's dwindling curlew population. Thirty-nine chicks have successfully hatched and are being raised in captivity as part of a project to save one of Britain's most iconic wading birds from local extinction. The chicks, hatched from eggs collected in northern England, are being cared for at Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey. They are due to be released into the wild later this summer. Curlews, easily recognised by their long, down-curved bills and haunting calls, are Europe's largest wading birds. They nest on the ground and are typically seen feeding on tidal mudflats and salt marshes. Populations in southern England have plummeted in recent decades due, it is thought, to habitat loss and high numbers of predators such as foxes. Reserve manager Gareth Fulton said: "The reason for the project is that curlews in southern England, basically everything south of Birmingham, are down to about the last 200 pairs and they need to produce more chicks per year to sustain their population. "So they're going to go extinct here in 20 years if no one does anything." Elmley is one of three sites involved in the South of England Curlew Project supported by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). They have officially been granted a licence from Natural England to receive and rear curlew eggs. Mr Fulton said they are working closely with experts in the Yorkshire Dales, where the curlew population is healthier. They identify where nests have been made in vulnerable locations, such as near a footpath or in fields that will be cut for grass before the chicks are ready. He said: "The experts watch the nests, know when the eggs are laid and know when they're ready to move. "They're incubated in Yorkshire for a few weeks before being brought here." Conservationists believe captive-rearing gives the birds the best chance of survival during their vulnerable early stages. With 3,300 acres of wet grassland and meadows, alongside salt marsh and mudflats of the River Swale, Elmley offers a protected environment for the birds to thrive. Curlews typically breed in the same area where they themselves were raised. Therefore, the hope is the chicks will return to breed at the reserve when they are mature. With this being the third year of the project, conservationists are looking out for returning birds and hopefully nests in 2026. Man sets off on 53-mile walk dressed as a curlew Conservationists hand-rear endangered birds Elmley Nature Reserve Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Curlew chicks hatch in Kent conservation project
A Kent nature reserve is playing a key role in efforts to revive southern England's dwindling curlew population. Thirty-nine chicks have successfully hatched and are being raised in captivity as part of a project to save one of Britain's most iconic wading birds from local extinction. The chicks, hatched from eggs collected in northern England, are being cared for at Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey. They are due to be released into the wild later this summer. Curlews, easily recognised by their long, down-curved bills and haunting calls, are Europe's largest wading birds. They nest on the ground and are typically seen feeding on tidal mudflats and salt marshes. Populations in southern England have plummeted in recent decades due, it is thought, to habitat loss and high numbers of predators such as foxes. Reserve manager Gareth Fulton said: "The reason for the project is that curlews in southern England, basically everything south of Birmingham, are down to about the last 200 pairs and they need to produce more chicks per year to sustain their population. "So they're going to go extinct here in 20 years if no one does anything." Elmley is one of three sites involved in the South of England Curlew Project supported by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). They have officially been granted a licence from Natural England to receive and rear curlew eggs. Mr Fulton said they are working closely with experts in the Yorkshire Dales, where the curlew population is healthier. They identify where nests have been made in vulnerable locations, such as near a footpath or in fields that will be cut for grass before the chicks are ready. He said: "The experts watch the nests, know when the eggs are laid and know when they're ready to move. "They're incubated in Yorkshire for a few weeks before being brought here." Conservationists believe captive-rearing gives the birds the best chance of survival during their vulnerable early stages. With 3,300 acres of wet grassland and meadows, alongside salt marsh and mudflats of the River Swale, Elmley offers a protected environment for the birds to thrive. Curlews typically breed in the same area where they themselves were raised. Therefore, the hope is the chicks will return to breed at the reserve when they are mature. With this being the third year of the project, conservationists are looking out for returning birds and hopefully nests in 2026. Man sets off on 53-mile walk dressed as a curlew Conservationists hand-rear endangered birds Elmley Nature Reserve Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
