28 Aug 2025
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP,
Open letter: tell Jenny Scott to step down from the Treasury Board
In the 2024 Labour Manifesto, this government promised to ensure ‘the highest standards of integrity and honesty’. You committed to ‘restoring trust between the public and politics’.
By appointing Jenny Scott to the Treasury’s board of directors, you have broken that trust.
Jenny Scott is the co-founder of Apella Advisors, where she continues to work full-time, alongside her part-time treasury role. Apella Advisors are lobbyists for Thames Water, and have held meetings with the Treasury on Thames’ behalf.
Thames Water is in a state of crisis. Customers are paying more and more for burst pipes, water outages and road closures. Last year, Thames’ record of serious pollution incidents more than doubled from the year before. This destruction has gone unchecked. Thames has already managed to lobby its way out paying its fines on time, by negotiating a deal with Ofwat which extends the deadline to 2030.
Thames Water is over £22 billion in debt and teeters on the brink of special administration. It is crucial that the future of this vital resource is decided transparently and democratically, with the interests of households and the environment placed front and centre.
Appointing a lobbyist who is directly linked to Thames Water flagrantly disregards the democratic process.
The Treasury’s defence - that the Board has no influence over government policy - is untenable. In your government’s own words, the Board’s purpose is to ‘advise and support the department’s ministers’.
Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron has called for Jenny Scott’s removal, highlighting the glaring conflict of interest.
We Own It is adding its voice to the call for Scott’s removal. She must step down with immediate effect.
You are presented with a clear choice. Either keep Jenny Scott in position, and send a clear signal to the public that the interests of corporations and lobbyists come first. Or, you can honour your commitment to honesty and integrity, and tell Jenny Scott to step down.
I sincerely hope you make the right choice.
Signed,
We Own It
