plan for collapse of Thames Water

I had a meter fitted and have been saving a few quid compared to a fixed rate monthly.

Joy of joys to know here is what Severn Trent are doing.

Fixed Rate (Combined) = +21.4% increase
Metered Rate (Combined) = +28.7% increase (Water supply charge on it's own is going up +40.8%!)

Theres reward for you trying to be responsible and save water.

**** Private Water!

Zero investment and zero policing. It's going straight into foreign investors pockets :mad:
Damn, I'm with ST as well. You're also going to get absolutely reamed with council tax. I think Birmingham were asking for a 25% increase. Hopefully that won't happen.
 
Damn, I'm with ST as well. You're also going to get absolutely reamed with council tax. I think Birmingham were asking for a 25% increase. Hopefully that won't happen.
Thankfully I'm just on the Solihull side of the border thank god!
 
Does not look sustainable to me!
Thames Water will likely end up paying around £200 million ($248 million) to advisers by the middle of this year, as the firm looks to find an equity investor and cut its liabilities.

The struggling utility, which supplies almost a quarter of the UK with water and sewage services, has already paid a sum between £100 million and £120 million to advisers looking to either help the firm shed debt or find a new owner, Chief Financial Officer Alastair Cochran told a London court on Tuesday. The company also expects to pay out another £90 million to such advisers over the next six months, Cochran said.

The eye-watering figures show the scale of the crisis Thames finds itself within, as well as the amount of money law and advisory firms stand to make. The company, which is a regional monopoly funded by customer bills, is struggling under more than £16 billion of debt and risks running out of money by the end of March. Thames is asking a London court to approve a plan that would enable the firm to borrow another £3 billion from its creditors to stave off insolvency.


Rothschild & Co. has been hired to run the bidding process for Thames Water. There are also a large number of lawyers and financial advisers working on restructuring the company’s debts, something that will likely drag on into at least the second half of this year.

Cochran, who has been chief financial officer at Thames since 2021, expects interest payments to be around £800 million to £900 million a year. Cochran was being cross-examined by a lawyer acting for Charlie Maynard, a UK politician that has appeared before the court saying that a temporary nationalization — through a process called a special administration — of the firm would be in the public interest.

“The creditors best interests are served by avoiding special administration,” Cochran said.
 
34.8% bill increase this year.

They fitted a meter in June 2023, not heard a wink from them about it since, despite being told I would have 3, 6 and 10-month comparison letters...
 
how can they spend 100mil on advisors what exactly are they doing, advising how to avoid fines and legal implications of dumping taw sewage?

should utilities be the kind of thing AI could do wonders for, surely they could hire palantir or another big data company to see how they can save money and be more efficient
probably doesnt cost 100-200mil
 
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Paying advisors over £100m on how not to waste money and manage debt, hmmmm, right, ok.

Let it go bust, the public have been fleeced and anyone it owes money too, tough, release details of anyone earning over 250k and what bonus packages they received and release all the dividend info.

Companies have to account for every penny, its not rocket science to see where all the money has gone.
 
How's this for incompetent?

[10:44, 07/02/2025] Me: I had a water meter fitted on 10th June 2023. The leaflet says it would be activated within 90 days. I would also get a letter at 3, 6 and 10 months comparing my usage with my current payments.
[10:44, 07/02/2025] Me: I've not had any contact since the installation.
[10:48, 07/02/2025] Thames Water: I can understand your query, Andy. As of now, the meter is in sleeping mode. Let me raise the ticket to my team, and you'll get the update in the next 6 working days.

Do you think they're intentionally not switching on the meter because they know my bills will be lower?
 
how can they spend 100mil on advisors what exactly are they doing, advising how to avoid fines and legal implications of dumping taw sewage?
The company is over a barrel. Legal professionals and advisors can charge whatever they like and the company has no choice.

should utilities be the kind of thing AI could do wonders for, surely they could hire palantir or another big data company to see how they can save money and be more efficient
probably doesnt cost 100-200mil
It might only cost £5, but the company supplying and implementing the AI will still command the highest fee they can legally levy.

Do you think they're intentionally not switching on the meter because they know my bills will be lower?
Nah, they'd love everyone to be on a meter. There are many possible reasons why it's not active:

The meter was likely installed by a contractor (presumably Lanes), so there can be a long period of handover, usually caused by problems with other installations.
They're typically installed across a large area, which takes time to complete before they can all be turned on, and there can often be 3rd party obstacles.
They need consistent power and data connectivity, which can be sporadic in some areas.
They need to validate the water network, check for leaks, confirm every element is working and, if something isn't (which it frequently isn't) then that has to be tackled.

A simple, single installation is pish-easy, but when you have hundreds the problems are a complicated web.
 
I'd love to be put in charge of Thames Water. There'd be such a huge change within the first year that nobody would recognise the company anymore.
 
How's this for incompetent?

[10:44, 07/02/2025] Me: I had a water meter fitted on 10th June 2023. The leaflet says it would be activated within 90 days. I would also get a letter at 3, 6 and 10 months comparing my usage with my current payments.
[10:44, 07/02/2025] Me: I've not had any contact since the installation.
[10:48, 07/02/2025] Thames Water: I can understand your query, Andy. As of now, the meter is in sleeping mode. Let me raise the ticket to my team, and you'll get the update in the next 6 working days.

Do you think they're intentionally not switching on the meter because they know my bills will be lower?
Looks like an AI response :D
 
I'd love to be put in charge of Thames Water. There'd be such a huge change within the first year that nobody would recognise the company anymore.

Personally I reckon you'd have more chance of getting a container ship to turn around by wafting a piece of paper at it than effect any meaningful change in a business like Thames
 
Looks like an AI response :D

Indian call center scripted response.

[12:00, 07/02/2025] Me: Why wasn't the meter activated 90 days after installation?
[12:26, 07/02/2025] Thames Water: Please be informed that once our team will invert and send you the comparison letters, and later they'll activate the meter. If you want to, I'll raise the request with our concern team to activate the meter.
[12:31, 07/02/2025] Me: Yes it needs to be raised

They went off-piste there and made no sense.
 
Thames water is a joke.
Or at least it Would be if it wasn't so serious.

So much incompetence everywhere to get like this. From regulator, management everyone.

It seem like no amount of money is going to fix this.

It needs to go bankrupt and be permanently brought back to public service.


Seriously, UK regulators need reforming. They've failed in so many sectors over recent past
 
how can they spend 100mil on advisors what exactly are they doing, advising how to avoid fines and legal implications of dumping taw sewage?

should utilities be the kind of thing AI could do wonders for, surely they could hire palantir or another big data company to see how they can save money and be more efficient
probably doesnt cost 100-200mil
It's mad. Paying external advisors for supposedly what their "top talent" team should be capable of doing themselves. As you rightly say, what exactly are they doing? What exactly are all these brilliant people at Thames doing? Endless years of restructuring promises by endless new people coining it all the way.

It truly is a total scam at this point.
 
These guys just can't help themselves - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4m312ll24o

Thames demanding it swaps the numbers from 35% to 53% increase in bills over the next five years and rather humorously has bypassed Ofwat and gone to the competition watchdog for the appeal. One presumes it has seen the increase that other water companies have blagged and wants some of that cherry.
 
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