Paragon that’s now a byword for greed

ONCE upon a time, Thames Water was a paragon of public ownership. But it has now become synonymous with private sector greed, absentee foreign ownership and general incompetence.

Indeed, the demise of the UK’s largest water provider could be compared to that of a fading football club, passed carelessly from owner to owner.

Much of Thames Water’s recent history has been characterised by failure, having racked up debts of £18billion, and frequently missed sewage spill and leakage targets.

But it was not always like this. There were high hopes for Thames when water and sewerage were among the public services privatised under Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1989. Households were assured privatisation would bring investment, and lead to improved water quality and reduced bills.

But by 2001, the company was acquired by German multinational utility firm RWE,

‘Nicknamed the vampire kangaroo’

putting British infrastructure into foreign hands. After this, criticism began to mount over missed leakage targets.

And so in 2006 it was sold to a consortium led by the Australian Macquarie group – dubbed ‘the vampire kangaroo’ – under which debts rose to around £10billion, while paying out billions of pounds in dividends.

By 2017, Thames Water was sold to a consortium of foreign sovereign wealth funds, including the China Investment Corporation, an arm of the Beijing government, and Infinity Investments, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, as well as UK and Canadian pension funds.

Yet despite debts soaring, and profits falling by 54 per cent by December last year, Thames Water revealed it had paid a £37.5million dividend to shareholders.