Thames Water nearing the cliff edge.

[JohnD]

"It would take seven years, and test the determination of Bailey and his colleagues to the extreme, but their investigation uncovered what a court heard was a tale of deliberate corporate wrongdoing and cover-up on the largest scale seen in the 25-year history of the EA.

The water company, which charges its customers to safely treat their sewage, had chosen instead to dump hundreds of millions of litres of raw effluent into protected marine environments because that was cheaper. It had been going on for years and is still the subject of an ongoing criminal inquiry by the EA."

Guardian.

 

[JohnD]

"17 May 2024, 10:15 BST
Updated 2 hours ago

Severn Trent boss defends multi-million pay packet despite sewage spills

The water firm made 60,000 sewage spills last year but insists river quality is improving.

www.bbc.co.uk

The boss of Severn Trent has defended her multi-million pound pay package despite sewage spills by the company rising by a third in 2023.
Liv Garfield was awarded £3.2m in pay, bonuses and shares last year, while over the past four years she has earned nearly £13m.
Severn Trent was responsible for more than 60,000 sewage spills last year which Ms Garfield told the BBC Today programme "doesn't make me feel good".

Perhaps three million quid will make her feel better.

 

[JohnD]

"Thames Water’s biggest shareholder writes off investment"​

"Move by Canadian pension fund is sign of escalating financial crisis at UK’s largest water supplier"

" Gill Plimmer and Josephine Cumbo in London
41 MINUTES AGO
Thames Water’s biggest shareholder has written off its investment in the utility in a sign of the escalating financial crisis at the UK’s largest water company.

A Singapore-registered subsidiary of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which holds a 31 per cent stake in Thames Water, said in accounts filed on Friday it would make “a full writedown of [its] investment and loan receivable with accrued interest”.

FT.com

Wow, who could have seen that coming?

 

[JohnD]

Times are changing at last....

"Water regulator Ofwat has placed Thames Water into a special regime that may require the UK’s largest water company to break itself up, publicly list, and reduce its debt mountain.

The watchdog said on Thursday that Thames Water had been late in delivering its business plan — which had requested a hike in customer bills of as much as 59 per cent over five years to 2030 — and even then it was “incomplete” and “didn’t even have the assurance of its own board”.

Thames Water will instead enter a “special turnaround oversight regime”, which will require a fresh business plan and tougher regulatory scrutiny of the company, with an independent monitor to sit within the utility and provide feedback on progress to Ofwat.

In the medium term Thames Water, which serves 16mn households in London and surrounding areas, may be required to limit the amount of debt it takes on, weigh a separation of the business into two or more water companies, or seek a public listing to secure additional equity, Ofwat said."

FT.com

 

[fixitflav]

Read in the parer today that water bills will have to rise, but "Ofwat will set out 'mitigation' measures to ensure the cash is not diverted to bonuses and dividends". Have they only just realised that was a risk? It should have been Ofwat's policy objective from day 1. Sheer incompetence.

 

[ajohn]

Southern Water has the largest intended charges increase 45%. Easily the highest of the lot.

Seven Trent have replaced some older piping and also the victorian feed from Wales. Also cheaper than some others. If I remember correctly increase ~19% many more similar.

 

[JohnD]

Going down the drain.



"Thames Water has had its credit rating slashed to “junk” status by S&P, putting the struggling utility in breach of its licence conditions and pushing Britain’s largest water utility closer to renationalisation.

Rating agency S&P on Wednesday said it had downgraded Thames’s safest class of debt to BB, lowering its credit rating two notches below investment grade and stripping the utility of its only remaining such rating. It had previously been rated at BBB-, the bottom investment-grade rating provided by S&P.

It also said that holders of Thames’s riskiest bonds could be completely wiped out in the case of a hypothetical default, while investors in Thames’s safest tier of bonds were expected to get 70 per cent of their money back.

“We do not believe that Thames Water will have a remedy plan to cover its liquidity needs by 1.1x for the next 12 months before the autumn of 2024,” S&P said. “In addition, the company is in breach of its current licence conditions.”

FT.com

 

[JohnD]

Still it rolls on

"Thames Water fined £104mn over sewage discharges"​

"Thames Water has been hit with a £104mn fine for failing to manage its sewage works, leading to effluent “routinely” flowing into rivers and seas and putting further pressure on Britain’s biggest water utility as it fights for financial survival.

Ofwat said Thames Water and two other companies — Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water — would be penalised for breaching regulations that require them to adequately upgrade, maintain and operate sewage treatment works.

The companies had also failed to adequately manage the plants, with executives, including at board level, failing to oversee treatment operations, the regulator said on Tuesday.

As a result, the combined sewage overflows — which are designed to release a mixture of storm water and sewage into waterways in “exceptional circumstances” — are frequently overwhelmed and “routinely” release waste into rivers and seas, the regulator said."

FT.com

 

[Odds]

Debt-laden Thames Water faces a scramble to find further funds as it fights to avoid a government-handled administration, after plans to charge customers £157m to repair a hole in its pension scheme were rejected. Considering they have debts of £15.2bn that kind of money is a drop in the ocean and now the pension issue presents its management team with an extra headache, as they face the challenge of raising cash to fund its investment plans while in Ofwat-supervised special measures after a breach of its licence.

The water company’s annual report, published last month, said a triennial review designed to value the Thames Water Pension Scheme (TWPS) in 2022 was “significantly overdue” and had not yet concluded. The defined benefit scheme, worth more than £1bn, closed to new members in 2021 and has a deficit of £152m.

 

[blup]

Read in the parer today that water bills will have to rise, but "Ofwat will set out 'mitigation' measures to ensure the cash is not diverted to bonuses and dividends". Have they only just realised that was a risk? It should have been Ofwat's policy objective from day 1. Sheer incompetence.

Not incompetent, their inaction is carefully thought through

 

[Odds]

You’ve been lied to, you’ve been misled, you’ve being extorted, you’ve been cheated, and you’ve been abused. For the last 35 years, you have been subject to nothing more than possibly the greatest organised ripoff perpetrated on the British people, and you have had little in return apart from greed, profiteering, financial engineering, political failure and regulatory incompetency. You’ve been had.

Water bills, which have gone up by 40% since privatisation, are scheduled to increase by an average of 21% by 2030 (factor in inflation and this could mean increases of up to 60% for some). Today every single river in England is polluted, a whole village has been poisoned and, in the last four years alone, 12,216,693 hours’ worth of sewage has been dumped into our rivers and on to our beaches.

Feargal Sharkey gives privatisation a kicking in The Guardian. Over £100 million in salaries and bonuses over the past ten years alone should be enough reason to sack all these fat cat bosses, let along the £78 billion paid out to shareholders. A march to Parliament Square has been organised on 26 October to demand changes in this destructive policy.

 

[Mottie]

Water bills, which have gone up by 40% since privatisation,

That’s not bad is it? Privatisation of the water companies was in 1989 and an online calculator says inflation since then has been 88% so they have in fact been below general inflation.

 

[Notch7]

That’s not bad is it? Privatisation of the water companies was in 1989 and an online calculator says inflation since then has been 88% so they have in fact been below general inflation.

It’s 40% above inflation

 

[Mottie]

It’s 40% above inflation

Where does it say that? Just says "water bills have gone up 40% since privatisation". If it was 40% above inflation, surely it would have said bills had gone up 128%?

 

[JohnD]

"Water executives to face jail if they obstruct UK investigations
New legislation gives regulator Ofwat extra powers on executive pay at utility companies"

"Senior water executives face being imprisoned for up to two years if they obstruct an Environment Agency or Drinking Water Inspectorate investigation under new legislation being introduced to parliament on Thursday.

Regulator Ofwat will also be given additional powers to set rules concerning performance-related pay after the water monopolies awarded their chief executives a total of £41mn in bonuses, benefits and incentives since 2020, the government said ahead of the bill being tabled. The water (special measures) bill is the government’s attempt to respond to the mounting crisis at water companies, which are facing the biggest wave of protests over sewage pollution since privatisation 34 years ago. The legislation will give Ofwat the powers to block or remove directors or chief executives if the regulator decides they do not meet high standards of “fitness and propriety”. It could lead to much higher penalties for frequent, minor offences that are currently capped at £300. "

FT.com


See also post no 76.