by Kevin Meagher
The water industry, privatised in 1989, was for a long time a chimera.
A public service that happened to be located across the aisle in the private sector. A big lumbering beast that just got on with the job and caused little fuss.
Not anymore.
Thames Water – the largest of the regional water monopolies – appears to be on the brink of collapse, carrying debts of nearly £15 billion.
Furthermore, its parent company, Kemble Water (a consortium that includes a Canadian pension fund, the China Investment Corporation and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund), is withholding a cash injection to prop-up it up.
That is unless the industry regulator, Ofwat, allows it to increase average customer bills over the next five years – which would see them rocket by 44% to £627 a year.
Ouch.
It all used to be much simpler.
During the nineties and noughties the water companies got on with the task of implementing EU wastewater regulations, which led to dramatic improvements in the quality of our drinking water, coastlines and urban waterways.
