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...Thames Water and Southern Water only mapped the pipes as they worked on them, leaving a large proportion of the network unchecked, the two companies revealed in responses to freedom of information requests...
...US claims to a swath of mineral-rich seabed are being challenged by China and Russia because Washington has failed to ratify a treaty that governs access to resources in international waters....
...Thames Water supplies a quarter of the population in England and Wales — or 16mn people....
...Officials at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have made contingency plans for Thames Water’s failure and dubbed them “Project Timber” because the collapse of the company, which...
...The prime minister has tasked former Morgan Stanley executive Franck Petitgas, his special adviser on business and investment, to oversee talks between regulator Ofwat, Thames Water and the environment department...
...The implementation of the scheme follows years of political friction between water companies, local government planners and environmentalists over management of the region’s water resources....
...“To achieve this water companies have proposed a record £96bn of investment — a near-doubling of current levels.”...
...But Gonzalo Delacámara, director of the Center for Water and Climate Adaptation at IE University, said the robustness of Spain’s water system so far had allowed a certain “cognitive dissonance”....
...Under those plans, drafted by the Treasury and the environment department (Defra), Thames Water would be managed by an arms-length body — modelled on the one that built London’s Crossrail project — while...
...A period of temporary public stewardship is generally framed as a worst-case scenario in discussions about the future of Britain’s biggest privatised water utility....
...Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water company, provides water and sewage services to 16mn people, or around 25 per cent of the population....
...If they withdraw, Thames Water could be forced to enter the government’s special administration regime, a form of temporary renationalisation....
...and mistrust of England’s privatised water system....
...Only about 15 per cent of the country’s water resources have been developed. Almost all farmers depend on rain, as they are not able to store rainwater or pump water from rivers....
...I once asked a director of one of the main water companies what input they received from the political level....
...New York-listed insurer Assured Guaranty had more than $12bn of exposure to UK water companies at the end of 2023, with more than $2bn to Thames Water alone....
...Government contingency plans for a potential nationalisation of Thames Water, which has become a focus for public anger over sewage pollution and mistrust of England’s privatised water system, emerged last...
...Green campaign groups condemned the environment department announcement as being too small to make any meaningful difference to the degradation of water quality across the UK....
...In a statement of intent, the shareholders have hired restructuring advisers at Alvarez & Marsal to engage with the creditors of Thames Water’s ultimate parent, Kemble Water Holdings....
...This is a big test of UK capitalism. Get Thames Water right and the case for private ownership of utilities will be enhanced....
...Yet the challenges confronting the likes of Thames Water and many others among the UK’s 17 suppliers of water and sewerage services do smack unnervingly of the issues that banks faced in the period running...
...Money is more important than water to the daily functioning of financial markets, so the GFC had a sense of urgency lacking in the Thames Water crisis....
...One of the holding companies that owns Thames Water on Friday said interest payments due earlier this week on a £400mn bond “have not been paid” as it issued a “formal notice of default”....
...“And this matters at a time when many parts of the planet are experiencing deep and extended droughts, and fresh drinking water is already a scarce resource.”...
...The ongoing saga involving the UK’s largest water company took a new turn yesterday after Thames Water said its shareholders were unwilling to stump up £500mn of fresh equity....
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