IF private water companies did what they are supposed to do as custodians of an essential service they most probably would not generate the dividend yield required to attract investment. That’s why private equity firm KKR withdrew its Thames Water rescue bid in June this year and why, ever since, the government has been under pressure from water companies to be exempted from duties in maintaining our water system and released from carrying out vital upgrades to meet the growing demand for water.   

Currently Thames Water’s creditors London and Valley Water are offering a new bailout of £4billion on the understanding that a “full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance” cannot take place until at least 2035-2040.

The decision on whether London and Valley Water should be allowed to take over all our Thames region water assets without regulatory compliance now falls to Ofwat, the regulator which was roundly criticised by the Independent Water Commission for allowing water companies “to treat water like a commodity rather than a public service.” Customers and campaign groups have been appealing to Ofwat to refuse the London and Valley offer for three very strong reasons:

• Under the terms of this deal, Thames Water would be permitted to breach environmental regulations until at least 2035-40 and to reduce sewage outflows by only 30% by 2030, rather than the government’s current 50% target i.e. they get a licence to pollute our rivers and seas for another 15 years.
• Allowing England’s biggest water company to disregard essential environmental standards so extremely would set a dangerous precedent for others and risk total a collapse in England’s water related environmental and safety standards. 
• It’s a bad deal financially with the London and Valley creditors offering a 25% debt write-off while government plans to stabilise Thames Water earlier in the year were based on a 40% debt haircut for some creditors. Financial experts have shown that it could even be a lot more.

For the sake of our environment, our health and our pockets we need Ofwat to reject this scandalously irresponsible deal completely and we need to stop allowing an essential service such as water to be reduced to nothing more than a revenue stream for profiteers.

• Ask your MP to back the call to bring Thames Water into public ownership and ask your councillors to declare no confidence in Thames Water and call on national government to put them into Special Administration .
• Write to Ofwat and urge them not to licence Thames Water to pollute for the next fifteen years

Thanks to weownit.org.uk for setting up these letter templates!