> Thames Water has been fined £122.7m for breaching rules over sewage spills and shareholder payouts. The penalty is the biggest ever issued by the water industry regulator Ofwat, which said the company had “let down its customers and failed to protect the environment”. The watchdog confirmed the fines would be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers who were hit with water bill increases last month. Thames Water said the company took its “responsibility towards the environment very seriously”, and added it was continuing its search for new investment as it struggles under a £20bn debt pile.
> The penalties come as Thames continues to face heavy criticism over its performance in recent years following a series of sewage discharges and leaks. The supplier serves about a quarter of the UK’s population, mostly across London and parts of southern England, and employs 8,000 people. It has been almost two years since the dire state of the company finances emerged, but Thames managed to secure a £3bn rescue loan in March to stave off collapse.
> On Wednesday, Ofwat ordered Thames Water to pay a fine following two investigations into its operations. A penalty totalling £104.5m has been issued for breaches of rules connected to Thames’s sewage operations. Releasing raw sewage has the potential to significantly damage the environment and poses a risk to human health for those swimming in a river or sea where sewage is being discharged. Water companies are allowed to release untreated sewage into rivers and seas – storm overflows – when it rains heavily, to prevent homes being flooded.
> But Ofwat said its findings suggested three quarters of Thames Water’s storm overflows were spilling “routinely and not in exceptional circumstances”. It also fined Thames an additional £18.2m for breaches relating to shareholder payouts – known as dividends. One such payment worth £37.5m made in October 2023 to the firm’s holding company and another £131.3m dividend made in March 2024, were found to have broken the rules. The regulator said the shareholder payouts were “undeserved” and did “not properly reflect the company’s delivery performance”. It is the first time the regulator has fined a water company for this reason. The scrutiny of dividends also adds to long-running criticism that Thames paid out billions in dividends over years instead of investing more cash in water infrastructure.
> David Black, the chief executive of Ofwat, said the latest fines were a result of a “clear-cut case where Thames Water has let down its customers and failed to protect the environment”. Our investigation has uncovered a series of failures by the company to build, maintain and operate adequate infrastructure to meet its obligations,” he added. “The company also failed to come up with an acceptable redress package that would have benefited the environment.” Thames Water is currently in “cash lock up” and no further dividend payments can be paid without approval from Ofwat.
> The company had expected to run out of cash completely by mid-April before it secured a rescue loan, and the government has been on standby to put Thames into special administration. Regardless of what happens to the company in the future, water supplies and waste services to households would continue as normal. Ofwat said the penalties “will be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers”. The money from the fines will ultimately go to the Treasury, but no firm decision has been made about what it will be used for. The regulator said the March 2024 payout was funded through a tax break and that it will now make the company pay the tax to “claw back the value” of it.
> In April, water bills for households in England and Wales rose by £10 per month on average, although costs vary depending on suppliers – Thames customer bills have gone up from £488 to £639 a year. Ofwat proposed the £104m fine in August last year, but confirmed the penalty, and the additional £18.2m fine on Wednesday. Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the “era of profiting from failure is over”. Earlier this month, Thames Water’s boss Chris Weston told MPs the company’s survival depended on Ofwat being lenient over fines and penalties.
> A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We take our responsibility towards the environment very seriously and note that Ofwat acknowledges we have already made progress to address issues raised in the investigation relating to storm overflows. The dividends were declared following a consideration of the company’s legal and regulatory obligations.” The company said its bid to raise more investment was continuing. Thames is in discussions with private investment group KKR about a cash injection of up to £5bn. But that deal being completed is also dependent on lenders to the company accepting a discount on the nearly £20bn they are owed. Some junior lenders could see their entire loan being written off.
Nationalise it.
This is just going on the bills. Mostly a waste of time.
I wonder if there is way that we change (it is a big change), that shareholders should directly pay these fines on behalf of the company they own. But I guess the company would just ensure the shareholder dividend covered the fine at a later date. Perhaps pointless.
>Thames Water *Customers* fined £122.7 million in biggest ever penalty
Fixed it
The government will never let it go bust as they rely on pension funds buying up British assets. If they let it fail they’ll cause a crash.
The decision to privatize basic British infrastructure should be a crime.
Yeah and my water bills have gone up again so the world just continues to spin.
Can’t wait for my water bills to go up…
It would make more sense to simply nationalise our water supply and transport systems. Basics of national security, let alone avoiding the exploitation, greed and corruption, poisoning our environment etc. Fines are pointless, simply paid by the public next year, via **38% price increases!!** Bastards on the board should be forced to drink the effluent they let pour into our rivers and seas.
Wild quote highlighting the Thames Water dividend payments:
>One such payment worth £37.5m made in October 2023 to the firm’s holding company and another £131.3m dividend made in March 2024, were found to have broken the rules. The regulator said the shareholder payouts were “undeserved” and did “not properly reflect the company’s delivery performance”.
The article says the fine has to be paid by the company and its shareholders, but how do they enforce that?
Surely they can just recoup it via their customers further down the line with an additional 0.5% price increase on top of what they had already planned (unless they were already at the upper bound of their price increase limit??).
Either way, this company needs to be punished and actually feel the consequences of its shitty actions.
Too little, too late.
jail time is the only real deterrent
That 3bn rescue loan they secured just before the fine should cover this…. Honestly, reading that this week then reading they’ve already used the loan to pay top execs bonuses to stop them from leaving makes this a big joke.
I see an increase in Thames water customers’ bills incoming.
Paid for by the customers or financed through awful credit terms and we’ll all end up having to pay for it when it’s nationalised.
Don’t worry, they’re just gonna have the customers pay that and pour more money into shareholder payouts abd executive bonuses. This critical infrastructure necessary for the basic functions of the nation should always be in public ownership.
And I’m not arguing for buying it all back. I’m saying seize it by law and force. Had enough of this mess!
“But that’s unfair to the investors and-”
I do not care. At all. Those people typically have enough money to buy dilapidated property for cheap, give it some basic fixes and resell at a vastly inflated price with massive profit. They can simply print themselves more money and they will be fine. Stop having sympathy for your oppressors.
Paris nationalised their water and they saw a lot of improvements. Instead of paying shareholders money should go into building and improving infrastructure
That’s spare change down the back of the sofa to them. Nationalise the fucking thing and get the bastards out of our water supply.
So what happens to these fines? OFWAT keep it or redistribute it to the customers? 🤷
Take it from management bonuses. They make millions and never sanctioned.
Lovely, so our bills will get more expensive
I’ve got a question. Where does the buck stop within Thames Water? At what point is someone aware that raw sewage is, or will be, released into a stream / river / sea and making the decision to not take steps to avoid that happening? Is there someone at some level that gives the go-ahead to dump waste? Or pushes the button to make that happen? How do they sleep at night?
Yay! I wonder if they’re just going to pass that fine onto their customers?
I’m expecting the rates to rise now again to cover this.
Can anyone explain why nationalisation would cost substantial sums? I would have assumed that in that scenario, debtors and shareholders are zeroed, leaving just the infrastructure and existing customers. This would immediately free up about 35% of revenue from customers, which is currently used to service interest payments, for investment in the actual infrastructure.
I do buy that there is a big backlog of infrastructure investments needed and that the cost of paying for those can be substantial, but that’s not really a cost of nationalisation – that’s just a cost that exists anyway (and in the non-nationalised scenario would be born directly by customers)?
Fining it doesn’t help, the money for the fine will be paid by us out of our bills.
Nationalising it at least stops the damage, but there needs to be an inquiry in to what was done and if any of the directors or shareholders can be held criminally or civilly liable for this and of so charge or fine them personally.
Where does the fine money go?
wow that is honestly nothing in the grand scheme of things tbh
cool taxpayers can now bail them out, pay their bonuses AND pay their fine
So now they’re 123m down, presumably our bills will go up even more?
They also have several criminal investigations pending.
On the one handy, okay, good. On the other hand, this will just lead to higher bills as the customers will end up paying for the fine…
Should be more. Incompetent organization. People at the top paid far to much for failure. Lets get ride of this gravy train. And lets do away with the practice of Water Companies knowingly discharging sewage into our rivers ! Slap on the wrist from the ‘ Regulators’. Lets replace the Regulators for all the good they have not done.
Thames Water will borrow another billion quid, use an ⅛ of it to pay off the fine, pocket the remaining amount in executive pay packets and stock buybacks, and then raise customers’ bills to cover the loan.
If this doesn’t happen I will buy a hat and eat it live on camera.
so their bills are going up again
seriously, Maggie created the greatest ponzi scheme of them all with the water companies.
For Christ sake, I’ve never been so interested in plumbing.
Fix the damn leak !!!
Please !!!
Not enough. Go over their accounts.
> The watchdog confirmed the fines would be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers who were hit with water bill increases last month.
Just like how China etc is going to pay the US tariffs and not the US consumer? How do they think that Thames Water *gets* money to then pay the fine?
As one of their customers, is there any way to claim money back?
42 comments
Not enough.
> Thames Water has been fined £122.7m for breaching rules over sewage spills and shareholder payouts. The penalty is the biggest ever issued by the water industry regulator Ofwat, which said the company had “let down its customers and failed to protect the environment”. The watchdog confirmed the fines would be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers who were hit with water bill increases last month. Thames Water said the company took its “responsibility towards the environment very seriously”, and added it was continuing its search for new investment as it struggles under a £20bn debt pile.
> The penalties come as Thames continues to face heavy criticism over its performance in recent years following a series of sewage discharges and leaks. The supplier serves about a quarter of the UK’s population, mostly across London and parts of southern England, and employs 8,000 people. It has been almost two years since the dire state of the company finances emerged, but Thames managed to secure a £3bn rescue loan in March to stave off collapse.
> On Wednesday, Ofwat ordered Thames Water to pay a fine following two investigations into its operations. A penalty totalling £104.5m has been issued for breaches of rules connected to Thames’s sewage operations. Releasing raw sewage has the potential to significantly damage the environment and poses a risk to human health for those swimming in a river or sea where sewage is being discharged. Water companies are allowed to release untreated sewage into rivers and seas – storm overflows – when it rains heavily, to prevent homes being flooded.
> But Ofwat said its findings suggested three quarters of Thames Water’s storm overflows were spilling “routinely and not in exceptional circumstances”. It also fined Thames an additional £18.2m for breaches relating to shareholder payouts – known as dividends. One such payment worth £37.5m made in October 2023 to the firm’s holding company and another £131.3m dividend made in March 2024, were found to have broken the rules. The regulator said the shareholder payouts were “undeserved” and did “not properly reflect the company’s delivery performance”. It is the first time the regulator has fined a water company for this reason. The scrutiny of dividends also adds to long-running criticism that Thames paid out billions in dividends over years instead of investing more cash in water infrastructure.
> David Black, the chief executive of Ofwat, said the latest fines were a result of a “clear-cut case where Thames Water has let down its customers and failed to protect the environment”. Our investigation has uncovered a series of failures by the company to build, maintain and operate adequate infrastructure to meet its obligations,” he added. “The company also failed to come up with an acceptable redress package that would have benefited the environment.” Thames Water is currently in “cash lock up” and no further dividend payments can be paid without approval from Ofwat.
> The company had expected to run out of cash completely by mid-April before it secured a rescue loan, and the government has been on standby to put Thames into special administration. Regardless of what happens to the company in the future, water supplies and waste services to households would continue as normal. Ofwat said the penalties “will be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers”. The money from the fines will ultimately go to the Treasury, but no firm decision has been made about what it will be used for. The regulator said the March 2024 payout was funded through a tax break and that it will now make the company pay the tax to “claw back the value” of it.
> In April, water bills for households in England and Wales rose by £10 per month on average, although costs vary depending on suppliers – Thames customer bills have gone up from £488 to £639 a year. Ofwat proposed the £104m fine in August last year, but confirmed the penalty, and the additional £18.2m fine on Wednesday. Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the “era of profiting from failure is over”. Earlier this month, Thames Water’s boss Chris Weston told MPs the company’s survival depended on Ofwat being lenient over fines and penalties.
> A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We take our responsibility towards the environment very seriously and note that Ofwat acknowledges we have already made progress to address issues raised in the investigation relating to storm overflows. The dividends were declared following a consideration of the company’s legal and regulatory obligations.” The company said its bid to raise more investment was continuing. Thames is in discussions with private investment group KKR about a cash injection of up to £5bn. But that deal being completed is also dependent on lenders to the company accepting a discount on the nearly £20bn they are owed. Some junior lenders could see their entire loan being written off.
Nationalise it.
This is just going on the bills. Mostly a waste of time.
I wonder if there is way that we change (it is a big change), that shareholders should directly pay these fines on behalf of the company they own. But I guess the company would just ensure the shareholder dividend covered the fine at a later date. Perhaps pointless.
>Thames Water *Customers* fined £122.7 million in biggest ever penalty
Fixed it
The government will never let it go bust as they rely on pension funds buying up British assets. If they let it fail they’ll cause a crash.
The decision to privatize basic British infrastructure should be a crime.
Yeah and my water bills have gone up again so the world just continues to spin.
Can’t wait for my water bills to go up…
It would make more sense to simply nationalise our water supply and transport systems. Basics of national security, let alone avoiding the exploitation, greed and corruption, poisoning our environment etc. Fines are pointless, simply paid by the public next year, via **38% price increases!!** Bastards on the board should be forced to drink the effluent they let pour into our rivers and seas.
Wild quote highlighting the Thames Water dividend payments:
>One such payment worth £37.5m made in October 2023 to the firm’s holding company and another £131.3m dividend made in March 2024, were found to have broken the rules. The regulator said the shareholder payouts were “undeserved” and did “not properly reflect the company’s delivery performance”.
The article says the fine has to be paid by the company and its shareholders, but how do they enforce that?
Surely they can just recoup it via their customers further down the line with an additional 0.5% price increase on top of what they had already planned (unless they were already at the upper bound of their price increase limit??).
Either way, this company needs to be punished and actually feel the consequences of its shitty actions.
Too little, too late.
jail time is the only real deterrent
That 3bn rescue loan they secured just before the fine should cover this…. Honestly, reading that this week then reading they’ve already used the loan to pay top execs bonuses to stop them from leaving makes this a big joke.
I see an increase in Thames water customers’ bills incoming.
Paid for by the customers or financed through awful credit terms and we’ll all end up having to pay for it when it’s nationalised.
let’s at least start off by signing the petition for Thames Water nationalization https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700436
Don’t worry, they’re just gonna have the customers pay that and pour more money into shareholder payouts abd executive bonuses. This critical infrastructure necessary for the basic functions of the nation should always be in public ownership.
And I’m not arguing for buying it all back. I’m saying seize it by law and force. Had enough of this mess!
“But that’s unfair to the investors and-”
I do not care. At all. Those people typically have enough money to buy dilapidated property for cheap, give it some basic fixes and resell at a vastly inflated price with massive profit. They can simply print themselves more money and they will be fine. Stop having sympathy for your oppressors.
Paris nationalised their water and they saw a lot of improvements. Instead of paying shareholders money should go into building and improving infrastructure
That’s spare change down the back of the sofa to them. Nationalise the fucking thing and get the bastards out of our water supply.
So what happens to these fines? OFWAT keep it or redistribute it to the customers? 🤷
Take it from management bonuses. They make millions and never sanctioned.
Lovely, so our bills will get more expensive
I’ve got a question. Where does the buck stop within Thames Water? At what point is someone aware that raw sewage is, or will be, released into a stream / river / sea and making the decision to not take steps to avoid that happening? Is there someone at some level that gives the go-ahead to dump waste? Or pushes the button to make that happen? How do they sleep at night?
Yay! I wonder if they’re just going to pass that fine onto their customers?
I’m expecting the rates to rise now again to cover this.
Can anyone explain why nationalisation would cost substantial sums? I would have assumed that in that scenario, debtors and shareholders are zeroed, leaving just the infrastructure and existing customers. This would immediately free up about 35% of revenue from customers, which is currently used to service interest payments, for investment in the actual infrastructure.
I do buy that there is a big backlog of infrastructure investments needed and that the cost of paying for those can be substantial, but that’s not really a cost of nationalisation – that’s just a cost that exists anyway (and in the non-nationalised scenario would be born directly by customers)?
Fining it doesn’t help, the money for the fine will be paid by us out of our bills.
Nationalising it at least stops the damage, but there needs to be an inquiry in to what was done and if any of the directors or shareholders can be held criminally or civilly liable for this and of so charge or fine them personally.
Where does the fine money go?
wow that is honestly nothing in the grand scheme of things tbh
cool taxpayers can now bail them out, pay their bonuses AND pay their fine
So now they’re 123m down, presumably our bills will go up even more?
They also have several criminal investigations pending.
On the one handy, okay, good. On the other hand, this will just lead to higher bills as the customers will end up paying for the fine…
Should be more. Incompetent organization. People at the top paid far to much for failure. Lets get ride of this gravy train. And lets do away with the practice of Water Companies knowingly discharging sewage into our rivers ! Slap on the wrist from the ‘ Regulators’. Lets replace the Regulators for all the good they have not done.
Thames Water will borrow another billion quid, use an ⅛ of it to pay off the fine, pocket the remaining amount in executive pay packets and stock buybacks, and then raise customers’ bills to cover the loan.
If this doesn’t happen I will buy a hat and eat it live on camera.
so their bills are going up again
seriously, Maggie created the greatest ponzi scheme of them all with the water companies.
For Christ sake, I’ve never been so interested in plumbing.
Fix the damn leak !!!
Please !!!
Not enough. Go over their accounts.
> The watchdog confirmed the fines would be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers who were hit with water bill increases last month.
Just like how China etc is going to pay the US tariffs and not the US consumer? How do they think that Thames Water *gets* money to then pay the fine?
As one of their customers, is there any way to claim money back?
Comments are closed.