A highly critical new report by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee is warning that a failing water sector in which “water companies increasingly look like financial institutions rather than businesses servicing monopolised critical infrastructure” is in need of “root and branch reform”.

Correspondence released by the House of Commons Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee yesterday evening has raised even more questions for the Chair and CEO of Thames Water to answer about the water company’s financial affairs – and the Committee has now further extended its questions about their recent evidence to Environment Secretary Steve Reed and Ofwat Chief Executive David Black.

Ofwat is seeking views on guidance it has issued setting out its approach to enforcement aimed at providing clarity to water companies, customers and other stakeholders - the ultimate sanction is High Court special administration order where the court is satisfied that the company's breach is serious enough to make it inappropriate for the company to continue to hold its appointment or it is or is likely to be unable to pay its debts.

 What is to be done about the UK’s failing utilities? Listen to Professor Dieter Helm explore the options to tackle the UK’s failing utilities – Thames Water, the Royal Mail and Network Rail in particular.

Professor Dieter Helm has published a highly critical and detailed analysis of Thames Water, describing the deeply indebted utility as “a disaster of its own and the regulators’ making” and “badly managed and financially engineered.”

Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney renewed her attack on Thames Water in a House of Commons debate last week, accusing the water company of dumping over 72 billion litres of raw sewage into rivers in London since 2020 and accruing billions of pounds of debt.

The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has expressed "real concerns"  to Ofwat that its enforcement powers place it in a situation whereby "enforcing regulations and issuing fines against consistently failing entities" will place a further financial burden on the companies and increase the risk of corporate failure.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has quietly amended insolvency legislation to update the Special Administration Regime for water companies in England and Wales.