As Thames Water scrambles to stave off financial collapse, its customers have said they “feel exploited” by rising bills and that their “blood is boiling” over sewage being dumped into local rivers.
Last week, the company appealed to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to raise bills higher than the 35 per cent previously approved by Ofwat between 2025 and 2030.
Burdened by £19.5bn in debt, the company also won a High Court battle on Tuesday to secure a £3bn loan.
It will first receive a tranche of £1.5bn, keeping it afloat until September 2025.
If the CMA approves its appeal, the company, which serves 16 million customers across London and South East England, will be able to receive two further tranches of £750m each to further extend liquidity to May 2026.
While Thames Water has said the loan will allow it to improve its infrastructure and wastewater services, customers have told The i Paper they fear the money will line investors’ pockets while even more sewage is poured into England’s rivers.
Martin Abrams is a Labour councillor in Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s constituency of Streatham and Croydon North, but told The i Paper he “completely disagrees” with the Government’s approach to Thames Water.
“I am a member of the Labour Party and I am also a Labour councillor, but for this purpose, I am a Thames Water customer who is increasingly enraged by them,” he said.
“Thames Water as a company has basically been using the business as a cash machine to extract as much money as possible whilst allowing increasingly regular overspills of sewage, increasingly regular burst pipes.
“Just last week, my family was without water for two days and had very low water pressure because there was a burst water main nearby.
“I live in a pretty small two-bedroom flat and there is only one toilet.
“People are going to have to use their imagination slightly to [picture] how utterly disgusting that starts to get when you don’t have any water.”
He added: “I got told by Thames Water that my bill will go up by 35 per cent the week before my water was cut off.
“The prospect of paying even more than 35 per cent basically just makes my blood completely boil.”
Abrams described Thames Water’s bailout loan as a “stunning act of corporate greed”.
“The company has extracted billions in profit and completely neglected to invest in the region’s water infrastructure.
“It gets to a point where they are on the verge of financial collapse – where they have to put in a little bit of investment to prevent them from collapsing entirely – and they expect the customers to foot the bill, to bail them out.
“It is one of the most stunning acts of corporate greed that I think has ever happened in this country.”
A spokesperson for Thames Water said that the loan “will not affect customer bills, but will unlock billions of pounds for investment in our network, fixing pipes, upgrading our sewage treatment works and maintaining high-quality drinking water”.
Lois Davis, 70, from south London, said she feels that she is “being exploited” by Thames Water and has decided to boycott her bills in protest of the company’s inadequate services.
“It’s a matter of principle,” Davis, who is a member of the Boycott Thames Water campaign group, said.
“They are blatantly not doing what they are statutorily obliged to do.
“How can a company that’s got 16 million guaranteed customers not be able to make ends meet?
“How can they need a loan when they’ve got a guaranteed income? It’s just outrageous.
“They are exploiting us and it should not be allowed. It’s like a slap in the face for us, because our rivers are being polluted, bursting pipes everywhere.
“I am a bus user and even buses are being held up by water mains being burst everywhere and they are just sticking a plaster on it.
“The company is going completely bust and needs to be put out of its misery and put back into public ownership.”
Joe Davies, from south-west London, is a member of Take Back Water, a campaign aimed to force the Government to take Thames Water back into public ownership through “mass non-payment“.
He told The i Paper that nearly 7,000 people, mostly Thames Water customers from the Greater London area, have signed up to boycott their bills.
“People are at breaking point. We tried marches, we tried writing to MPs, water testing, we’ve tried everything. And it’s not worked.
“The only thing people will be able to latch on to as a viable tactic is mass non-payment.”
By taking out a £3bn loan, Davies said the company is “kicking an inevitable can down the road.
“Thames Water, at the moment, can’t even pay the interest on the loan debt that it has – let alone taking on any more.
“So it just means that the collapse will happen later on, but once again we are asked to foot the bill.
“It’s the taxpayer – the ordinary working person – who has had their pockets emptied in order to line the pockets of investors.”
A Thames Water spokesperson said that any customer concerned about their ability to pay their bills should reach out to the company for support.
The firm added that customers who do not pay their bills when they can afford to do so risk negatively impacting their credit rating and could be subject to a debt collection process.
Matthew Topham, lead campaigner at We Own It, a group calling for Thames Water to be brought under public ownership, said customers are trapped in a “doom loop” as the company will endlessly raises bills to pay off its increasing debt.
“Fundamentally, the system is broken and we’re stuck in a doom loop where, to take on more debt, they need more funds from customers’ bills, and round and round the failed system goes.
“The situation with new shareholders coming in is really distressing for customers because – yes, some of that cash could be used to pay off some of these debts – but that also means the money is not be going into fixing the dire state of the infrastructure that people are relying on for their survival.”
Topham added that some of the organisations bidding to be the new owners of Thames Water have suggested selling off assets worth four times more than the funds they are willing to put into it.
He cited a bid by infrastructure investor Covalis Capital, which offered to provide about £1bn upfront and raise a further £4bn from the sale of the Thames Water’s assets.
“That means things like our reservoirs, our pipes, our sewage works, that should be owned in the interest of the public being sold off for a quick penny.”
Lena Swedlow, campaigns officer at Compass, which is also calling for Thames Water to be brought under public ownership, said: “Once again, the public is being forced to foot the bill for the failing, broken system of privatised water.
“Thames Water has been run into the ground by private profiteers, and instead of accountability, its rotten governance will remain virtually unchanged, propped up by a model that rewards failure.
“The government must stop putting private interests first, and start listening to the public. Water is a public good, not a cash cow for CEOs. It’s time to bring it back into public hands – a publicly owned, democratically run water system that works for people and the planet, not profit.”
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We offer comprehensive support for customers struggling to pay their bill, rated among the best in the sector. We’re already helping around 450,000 customers pay their bills, and by 2030, one in ten households could be in receipt of support, including a discount of 50 per cent on their bill.
“We would encourage any customer that is concerned about their ability to pay to reach out to us so we can assess the right package of support for their circumstances.
“However if a customer chooses not to pay for their water or waste water services, when they can afford to do so, then it may negatively impact their credit file and result in a debt collection process.
“As we have previously stated this plan will not affect customer bills, but will unlock billions of pounds for investment in our network, fixing pipes, upgrading our sewage treatment works, and maintaining high-quality drinking water.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The company remains stable and the government is closely monitoring the situation. It would be inappropriate to comment further on the financial matters of a private company.”
The Consumer Council for Water and Ofwat have been contacted for a comment.
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