‘All of the options’ on the table to rescue Thames Water, says Andy Burnham
The Prime Minister has said the Government is “looking at all of the options” to rescue the troubled utilities firm Thames Water.
Andy Burnham said that his Government is "looking at all of the options" to rescue Thames Water.
The Prime Minister also said on Friday the model of having privately owned water firms was “a very poor system”, and promised to “lay out a programme for reform”.
He hinted water sector reforms would be high up on his agenda during this year’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool, which begins at the weekend.
Thames Water, which supplies water and looks after the sewerage system throughout London and parts of southern England, has a debt mountain of around £20 billion and previously warned it only has enough money until the year end.
Asked whether the Government would step in and take the firm into a special administration regime, the Prime Minister told BBC South: “Obviously, we are looking at all of the options."
“And it’s challenging because the effect of privatisation was that it locked in a very poor system.”
Mr Burnham added: “You can see that in so many ways with the leaks that people face – the sewage in our rivers and in our seas, but now the bills that people are paying."
“It’s a system where the shareholders never lose and the public never win – and that’s got to change.”
Mr Burnham did not say what the water sector should look like, but added: “As we go into the Labour conference, we will set out more thinking about the change that we need to see in the running of water across the country.”
The Prime Minister has previously told the House of Commons his administration would “find it very difficult to reverse” the privatisation of water companies which took place almost 40 years ago – in 1989.
During Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership, which came to an end earlier this year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimated that nationalising the water industry would cost around £100 billion.
But Thames Water is facing a “doom loop”, according to MPs on the Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
The panel last week warned £10 billion takeover plans by a consortium of more than 100 creditors in the company do not have “the interests of the public, the company or the environment at heart”.
Creditors – who collectively own about £17 billion of Thames Water’s £20 billion debt – have already been sent back to the drawing board after former environment secretary Emma Reynolds warned in June she did not believe their plan went far enough to protect customers or the environment.
Mr Burnham also faced questions about South West Water, which charity Friends of the Earth this year named “top of the flops” for having the highest total duration of pollution events since 2024, averaging annually at 574,323 hours.
In a pre-conference interview, the Prime Minister told ITV West Country that he was “well aware of the strength of feeling in the region”.
He added: “It was a difficult summer for people in relation to water supply.”
Mr Burnham also said: “What we need to do is start to lay out a programme for reform – and we will.
“And we can expect to hear an answer to that (at the) conference.”