28 Nov 2025
In a desperate effort to keep hold of the company - and keep it out of special administration - Thames Water's creditors have proposed a deal to Ofwat.
As part of this deal, Thames Water is asking to pollute illegally for the next 15 years. This is because water companies profit from pollution. The less money they put into fixing our crumbling infrastructure, the more that shareholders can keep for themselves.
You have been part of putting the pressure on Ofwat to say no to this outrageous deal:
- Over 20,000 of you signed our petition, demanding that Ofwat say NO to Thames Water.
- Nearly 7000 of you sent a letter directly to Ofwat, outlining why they must say NO
- Many of you gathered outside Ofwat's headquarters in Birmingham, to hand the petition directly to an Ofwat executive and explain why their decision on this deal is so important
Ofwat recently responded to all of your campaigning efforts. You can read Ofwat's full letter here.
Below is our open letter to Ofwat's CEO, outlining all of the ways in which their letter just isn't good enough.
Dear Chris Walters, interm CEO of Ofwat
Thank you for your letter earlier this month.
As I’m sure you are aware, over 20,000 people signed the petition demanding that Ofwat say no to the Thames Water creditors’ proposed deal. A further 6,918 people have sent letters directly to you, at Ofwat. It is clear that public feeling in opposition to this deal is incredibly strong.
As negotiations with Thames Water’s creditors continue, we would like to address some of the points raised in your letter.
You said that “Thames Water needs to improve its operational performance, raising the level of service to customers and reducing harm to the environment. It also needs to strengthen its financial resilience”
Under the current terms of the deal, it would be impossible to reduce harm to the environment. Thames Water creditors state that a ‘full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance’ would not take place until at least 2035-2040 [1]. Greater leniency means that they would, in fact, increase their harm to the environment. In approving this deal, Ofwat would also set a precedent for greater environmental leniency across the sector, thereby multiplying this harm.
Nor would it be possible for Thames Water to improve its operational performance, given that the creditors have also requested delays to mains repairs. This is despite 13 critical water treatment and sewage processing sites being at risk of a ‘single point of failure’, meaning one fault could cause huge disruption to households [2].
We agree that Thames Water must strengthen its financial resilience. However, this is not possible while it remains in private hands. Thames Water’s financial precarity has been caused by shareholders extracting more money than they put in. Private shareholders have extracted over £85 billion from the water industry since privatisation [3]. They have ‘literally invested less than nothing’ [4]. We cannot entrust the same people who have bankrupted Thames Water with securing its financial stability.
You said that “we have held companies to account in the period from 2020 to 2025”.
You outlined the return of £169m of customers’ bill money because of Thames Water’s poor performance. However, these repayments are effectively meaningless when customers are simultaneously being asked to pay a 35% increase in their bills for Thames Water’s crumbling service [5].
You also highlighted the £104m penalty handed to Thames Water for wastewater mismanagement and unjustified dividend payouts. However, the final deadline for the payment of this fine is not until March 2030 - a date so far away that the fine is effectively inconsequential for Thames Water [6].
Special administration is a crucial tool to hold failing water companies like Thames Water to account. As Water Minister Emma Hardy remarked in February 2024:
“Unless owners and shareholders believe that there is a genuine risk of them losing their licence, they have no real incentive to promote good corporate behaviour or environmental performance [...]If multiple and deliberate breaches of environmental law and repeated deception of the regulator by the provision of falsified performance information is not enough, what fear can those in the sector really have?” [7].
In order to truly hold Thames Water to account - and set a meaningful precedent for the rest of the water industry - it must be put into special administration without delay.
You said that any changes to the regulatory framework or Thames Water’s licence “would be subject to public consultation.”
Can you detail what form this public consultation would take? Additionally, how would you ensure that the consultation process would provide true accountability to households and consumers, as opposed to mere tokenism?
I look forward to your response to this question, and the points raised above.
Yours sincerely,
We Own It
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‘Thames Water creditors ask for up to 15 years’ leniency’, The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/02/thames-water-lenders-submit-new-rescue-plan-to-stave-off-collapse
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‘Single fault at Thames Water works could imperil London’s supply’, Financial Times - https://www.ft.com/content/97e41a5c-4cf2-4205-9878-6c75949b92be?accessToken=zwAAAZqRnnb1kdOX5BpcTPJCBdOYeGx1lJuSvg.MEUCIEAYOQd1AwYJsZACBKsjPI0_bUjQ2B8VvXKv3_h9vOe0AiEAnvdjwQEKcDDfVVc1SwIxCtKpY7Ohqh86GkvGjG_ko9Q&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise&shareId=fad8d8d1-4ad3-4d01-9a3d-3d41e714c650
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‘How to Clean Up Our Water: Why Public Ownership in Law Costs Zero’, Common Wealth - https://www.common-wealth.org/publications/how-to-clean-up-our-water
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‘Clean Water: A case for Public Ownership’, UNISON - https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2024/07/385-clean-water-reportJune2024.pdf
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‘What the 2024 price review means for water customers’, Ofwat - https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulated-companies/price-review/2024-price-review/what-it-means-for-customers-and-water-bills/#ThamesWater
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‘Thames Water agrees payment plan for £123m sewage and dividend fines’, The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/27/thames-water-agrees-payment-plan-for-sewage-and-dividend-fines
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‘Draft Water Industry (Special Administration) Regulations 2024’, UK Parliament - https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2024-02-06/debates/a6999b47-0ac2-4ad7-ae73-8b167af308ec/DraftWaterIndustry(SpecialAdministration)Regulations2024DraftWaterIndustryAct1991(Amendment)Order2024
