This will keep happening until Tideway is completed, not really much you can do with a Victorian sewage system, massive building development and 8 million people all it needs is heavy rain and sewage is diverted into the Thames untreated for relief.
That's debatable...
One argument is around cleaning the existing sewers out, so they don't surcharge and need either a Tideway Tunnel or spillage into the Thames. The main point of debate is around the cost of cleaning vs the cost of Tideway, though - Customers don't want all their bill money spent on sewer cleaning, but neither do they want it spent on a big ugly mega-sewer development that blights their land for a short time...
The kicker is that customers also don't want their sewers to block up and spill into the rivers, but they still happily chuck all manner of stuff down the sewers that then block up as a result...!!
Build the biggest sewer you like, it will still need the same amount of cleaning because it will keep blocking up so long as customers chuck stuff down there.
I think it all actually worked better pre-privatisation, TBH...
I'm interested to know what you position is on this - your first and second post implies that neither shareholders or Directors have any culpability (?)
Perhaps not directly and less likely in the case of the shareholders.
I agree that the shareholders are so remote from the day to day running, they don't exercise any real influence, but they are the ones that own the company
In Thames's case, the actual shareholders invested in an investment company, that invested in Thames and manages the shareholding companies' investments on their behalf.
It's also further complicated because the problems that have led to Thames being fined are a hang-over from past management as well as present and many of the current shareholders have only just invested in the last couple of months. McQuarrie only recently sold their 28% stake. This is likely the first these new shareholders have even heard about the problems!
But in addition, most of the Thames investors are pension schemes, including those of BT and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - You hit them with the punishment, you rob peoples' pensions... possibly including your own, depending on all the details.
And lastly, I'm sure companies aren't above lying in order to secure investments... You want to punish someone for being lied to?
Ultimately the responsibility for the way the company behaves, and that includes the actions of its employees, lies with the Directors. If the Directors don't know what their staff are doing they are not acting competently
But the employees are also capable of taking some quite serious actions that the directors cannot immediately prevent. They can be (and a few have been) fired and prosecuted for it afterward, with some hefty punishments available, but the directors themselves are not always directly responsible.