Thames Water bondholders have demanded an emergency meeting with the troubled utility’s management. It is seeking clarity on the situation at the UK’s biggest water supplier after its parent company defaulted on its debt this month.
Thames Water’s lenders have become increasingly nervous after the default by Kemble Water Finance.Â
It has increased the likelihood of write-downs on the utility’s £16bn of debt. According to a letter from the Financial Times, the group claims to hold more than £5bn of Thames Water bonds.
This claim has approached the company requesting a meeting to discuss the crisis. UK water companies, including Thames Water, have substantial inflation-linked debt. Given this situation, emergency funding for the UK water company crisis is urgent.
UK and water shortage
If this summer is burning and dry, the UK could encounter water shortages and hosepipe bans. Despite experiencing the wettest 18 months since the records were documented, distinguished scientists have declared that the UK is not storing its water correctly. The country is vulnerable to the “all or nothing” rain patterns experienced more frequently due to climate breakdown.
There have been no new significant reservoirs built in the past three decades. Rivers have been arranged to move water quickly so it runs into towns and cities – causing floods. The sea and many wetlands have been dehydrated and farmed or built on. This means the winter rainfall pelts in the UK are not being stored properly. It is also causing floods followed by water shortages in summer. This situation will require serious support from the government. Therefore, emergency funding for the UK water company crisis is urgent.
Growing shortage of water
The Environment Agency unleashed a report forecasting a growing water shortfall in coming years. It is ushering in a shortage of almost five bn litres of water a day by 2050. This is more than a third of the 14bn litres of water presently put into public water supply. The shortfall may be changed upwards without action. Draft government programs indicate that by 2050, the nation’s public water supply will encounter a shortfall of more than 4,800 Ml/day (million litres per day). This number has grown from 4,000 Ml/d in the 2021 draft. It is due to revised forecasts of demand and additional reductions in abstraction to enhance the environment.
Shortages in practice mean public supply is prioritised. Agriculture and other businesses are prohibited from abstraction, pushing them to cease operations for a time. Also, there will likely be a ban on filling swimming pools and ponds and cleaning public buildings. Hosepipe bans are already in place during hot and dry periods, with people banned from using them to wash their cars and water their gardens.
Water and climate issues are critical
Water is becoming increasingly challenging for countries worldwide as climate change takes hold, and the UK is definitely not exempt from this. Ageing Infrastructure, growing urbanisation, and pollution all significantly impact water quantity and quality across the country.
Sewage pollution, water supply interruptions, and flooding in urban regions have all grown over the previous years. The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) attributes this to a decade of Conservative government letdowns and is now requesting an independent water inquiry.
CIWEM report and water regulation
On Wednesday, 22 March 2023, the Committee published its report. The title was ‘The Affluent and the Effluent: cleaning up the failures of water regulation’. The report concluded that under-investment, poor government strategy and insufficient coordination have resulted in a defeat to “treat water with the care and importance it deserves”—the government responded on 5 June 2023.
This report represents the conclusion of the follow-up work and emergency funding for the UK water company crisis. Since the report’s publication, several further water policy and regulation developments have occurred. The Committee, therefore, launched a short follow-up inquiry. It was focused on Ofwat, the water industry, and the role of Government in June 2023. During that inquiry, it heard from the water industry, Ofwat. It also includes the Minister for Environmental Quality and Resilience, Rebecca Pow MP.
The UK’s water crisis is resurrecting 2008-style dilemmas.Â
The government may take over heavily indebted Thames Water, an unfavourable privately held utility unable to support capital demands that may stretch, opening a new tab to 10 billion pounds. Governments found a point while trying to prop up the Royal Bank of Scotland during the global financial crisis. This point was that they may have to choose between two bad options. That’s why emergency funding for the UK water company crisis is vital.
Thames Water’s problems began in the 1980s. UK water companies could have been a better choice for privatisation. They are natural monopolies with limited competition and significant investment needs, limiting the scope for shareholder returns. But they were also debt-free, giving shareholders an easy way to make money. Water regulator Ofwat assumed a given level of debt when setting the sector’s allowed returns on capital – and hence consumers’ bills. This caused any extra borrowing on top of that would bring down the cost of capital, saving more for shareholders. The regulator’s move to keep prices down also incentivised utilities to borrow more to juice up returns.
Is emergency funding for the UK water company crisis resolved?
Rishi Sunak has delivered a new critical aide with a “CEO” mentality to help handle the Thames Water crisis. It happened amid worries that a potential collapse would drive up consumer bills. Lord Petitgas, a former banking executive and now Downing Street adviser, has joined urgent discussions. These meetings were held between the regulator Ofwat and Thames Water amid news of a standoff over shareholder payments.
Sunak has reportedly tasked his business adviser with overseeing talks regarding the Thames Water crisis amid the risk of collapse. The Prime Minister’s special adviser on business and investment, former Morgan Stanley executive Franck Petitgas, has been parachuted into discussions.
It comes as the government seems afraid of the risk of the possible collapse of Britain’s largest water firm. The firm operates around a quarter of the UK’s population. Talks continue between water regulator Ofwat, Thames Water and the environment department Defra. This talk is reportedly known as Project Timber, as the government pushes to secure contingency plans in case of the utility’s failure. One choice could be to bring it into temporary renationalisation under the government’s special administration regime and allot emergency funding to the UK water company crisis.
