Thames Water’s profit-hungry owners have let the water network rot while they’ve racked up alarming debts. And who do they want to pick up the tab? Customers – through ever-rising water bills.
The company is on the brink of collapse, so it wants a £3bn bailout, paid for by driving bills higher and higher.
But there’s a way out. According to the Water Industry Act 1991, if a water company is failing the environment secretary can put them into special measures.
The problem is, Steve Reed doesn’t want to. Thames Water isn’t the only water company up to its eyeballs in debt. Labour seems to think that triggering this fix will start the dominoes falling, and leave every single water company facing nationalisation.
But Reed is wrong: triggering the fix can happen without nationalising Thames Water.
We need to act now. If you want your money to be used to fix the problem, not to reward greed, write to Steve Reed and demand he stops the bailout and puts Thames Water into special measures.