16 Mar 2026
Thames Water’s creditors are asking to pollute illegally until 2040.
That’s because pollution creates profit. The less money spent on investing in creaking water infrastructure, the more money that shareholders can keep for themselves.
Last year, the Environment Agency ranked Thames Water as the worst water company in the UK. Now, Thames Water want to be rewarded for their abject failure.
We can’t let that happen.
That’s why many brilliant campaigners and supporters have been working hard - since October last year - to resist this outrageous deal:
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Over 20,000 people signed a petition demanding that Ofwat (the water regulatory) say NO to Thames Water’s creditors
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We handed this petition directly Ofwat’s Chief Operating Officer at their Birmingham Headquarters in October
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We co-ordinated a letter signed by 24 MPs representing the Thames Water region, urging Ofwat and the Environment Secretary to reject the deal
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We co-ordinated a second letter from a number of environmental campaigning groups, demanding that Ofwat say no
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In total, nearly 20,000 people have written directly to Ofwat, explaining why this deal cannot go ahead
And at the beginning of this month, we took the campaign directly to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds’ Wycombe constituency. With the help of 14 giant inflatable poos, we made it clear that the public won’t accept 14 years of illegal pollution for profit.
We held the protest at the Dyke, a body of water which joins up to the river Wye, at the heart of Reynolds’ constituency.
When we arrived, the man working in the Boathouse Café right by the water came and spoke to us, asking if we were there for the sewage protest - news had already spread!
He told us that in years gone by, the cafe had sold nets that children could use to catch wildlife in the water. Now - because of pollution - there was no wildlife to be seen.
Throughout the morning, many passers-by stopped to talk to us about their anger at the dire state of our water system. Many had watched Dirty Business, and were furious to learn that their MP was considering signing off on even further destruction of our natural environment, all for the sake of private profit.
The protest itself drew about 100 people. We heard speeches from local councillors, public ownership campaigners and Dirty Business campaigners Ash and Peter.
The protest received coverage in the local press and the BBC.
It’s clear from all of the energy and determination around our action in High Wycombe - as well as the response from passers-by - that this is a moment of reckoning for privatised water.
People have had enough of watching their bills go up, and their rivers fill with sewage, all while shareholders fill their pockets with our money.
Time is up on pollution for profit, and that begins with the rejection of the Thames Water creditors’ outrageous proposal.
Write to Ofwat: say no to 14 years of illegal sewage pollution
