A report on the front page of The Financial Times newspaper this morning says that Thames Water is lobbying for higher bills, dividend payouts and lower fines.
According to the FT, the water company is seeking to avoid a government bailout, with officials making a contingency plan for its failure which had been dubbed "Project Timber."
The paper says:
“Britain’s largest water monopoly is trying to avoid being taken over under the government’s special administration regime, which could leave taxpayers on the hook and undermine confidence in the privatised water industry.”
The FT cites two people close to talks which took place earlier this month between Thames Water, Defra and Ofwat as saying that chair Sir Adrian Montague had “failed to get everything he wanted” in the discussions which had contributed to his decision to step down 10 days ago as Chair of Kemble. The article also quotes an individual person close to the company as saying that they came out of the meeting with no deal and “concerns that the company would not survive.”
The person had also described Thames Water as “like a flooded room with only an inch of air at the top” and said that “the shareholders would be irrational to put any equity in if they don’t win concessions.”
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