Water companies struggle for larger payments regardless of outrage

Water firms are set to take their case to the competition authorities if they don’t get their way on plans to raise bills by up to 91 per cent.

In a key week, regulator Ofwat will announce on Thursday how much each utility in England and Wales can charge customers for water and sewerage over the next five years. 

This could decide the fate of Thames Water, which supplies 16 million households in and around London as it teeters on the brink with debts of £16 billion.

Thames Water says it will run out of money by the end of this month unless it secures a £3 billion cash lifeline from its creditors.

On Tuesday, a High Court judge will hear from two rival groups of bondholders putting forward their own emergency loan plans to save Thames Water from sinking into special administration – a form of temporary nationalisation.

Separately, Thames Water is in talks with suitors about an equity injection as previous shareholders declared the firm ‘uninvestable’. Potential buyers will wait and see if Thames succeeds in its demand for a 59 per cent increase in bills over the period to secure much-needed investment in its creaking network of pipes and sewers.

Difference of opinion: Water firms want to raise bills by an average £144 over the next five years, but Ofwat has provisionally capped the increase at £94

Thames recorded 17,554 storm overflow spills in the first nine months of this year, up from 14,428 in the same period in 2023. It blamed record rainfall.

Southern Water has tabled plans to raise bills by 91 per cent – the biggest increase of any water firm.

It is still subject to enforcement monitoring after being fined a record £126 million in 2019 over ‘shocking’ failures at its sewage treatment sites. Every water firm

in England and Wales is under investigation over pollution amid public outrage over huge dividend payouts to overseas shareholders and fat bonuses to bosses.

Water firms want to raise bills by an average £144 over the next five years, but Ofwat has provisionally capped the increase at £94.

Four water firms successfully challenged Ofwat’s last price ruling in 2019, winning a more generous settlement.