Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney renewed her attack on Thames Water in a House of Commons debate last week, accusing the water company of dumping over 72 billion litres of raw sewage into rivers in London since 2020 and accruing billions of pounds of debt.
Sarah Olney opened the debate on Friday 15th March by saying:
“Since 2020, Thames Water has dumped over 72 billion litres of raw sewage into rivers in London, polluting our waterways and damaging our natural environments. It has done so while accruing billions of pounds of debt and increasingly failing to provide basic services to the nearly 25% of the country it supplies, including my constituents in Richmond Park. Despite this, Thames Water executives have paid themselves almost £8 million in bonuses over recent years, lining their pockets while the company they run continues to pollute our rivers and streams.
“For my constituents in particular, the name Thames Water has understandably become a byword for poor quality, slapdash repair work, damaging environmental practices, and barely concealed contempt for its bill payers.”
She went on to say that Thames Water is now planning to build a pipeline across a nature reserve in the constituency – which she described as “the controversial Teddington direct river abstraction project” which will allow Thames Water to take water from the Thames and replace it with treated sewage just above Teddington lock. The project was “only necessary” because Thames Water is losing hundreds of millions of litres of water a day through leaks in its system, she added.
She described as “infuriating” recent reports in the Financial Times that Thames Water has been lobbying the Government and the industry regulator, Ofwat, to let it increase bills further, pay dividends and face lower fines as it “seeks to avoid financial collapse.”
The MP again expressed her anger at Conservative Ministers refusal to publish their contingency plan, Project Timber, despite what is now “overwhelming public interest to do so.”
In addition for the publication of Project Timber, Sarah Olney called for “further, more drastic action” following new legislation passed last month, which allows the High Court to appoint a special administrator to take over a failing water firm.
“With Thames Water clearly unable to pay its debts and with its latest refusal to contribute investment to combat sewage, I believe the threshold has now been met for the Government to take this as a course of action”, she commented.
“That is why I now speak on behalf of the Liberal Democrats in calling on the Government to put Thames Water into special administration. Under these new proposals, the taxpayer would not be liable for any debts, and the special administrator could restructure this failing firm into a company for the public benefit.”
According to the MP, the Government faces two options: “to continue allowing Thames Water slowly sink into financial ruin, or to act now to restructure this failed company and start getting it working again for the public benefit.”
Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries Mark Spencer MP, responding on behalf of the Government, yet again refused to make details of the contingency plan public, saying:
“I want to make it clear from the outset that no matter the individual circumstances of their water or waste water company, the public will always continue to receive those vital services….
I want to reassure the House that the Government are prepared for a range of scenarios across all our regulated industries, including across all water companies, as any Government should be...
“Regarding contingency plans as they specifically relate to Thames Water, as noted to the House previously, Ofwat monitors the financial position of all water companies, including Thames Water, and takes action when water companies and their investors need to strengthen their long-term financial resilience.
“However, it is important to make clear that it is for the company and its investors to manage the company’s financial resilience within the context of its licence and broader statutory obligations. The Government are confident that Ofwat, as the economic regulator of the water industry, is working closely with all water companies, including Thames Water, and ensuring that action is taken when financial resilience needs to be improved...
“Should a special administration order ever be needed for any water company, the statutory purpose of the order would be to ensure that the company continues to operate and that customers continue to receive their water and waste water services.”
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